WHY Reporter -- Global Hunger & Poverty News : 07/18/2004

7.23.2004

Crisis in the Sudan
Joyce Man reports

Update: According to The Associated Press, the U.N. Security Council adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution Friday threatening diplomatic and economic "action" against Sudan if it does not disarm Arab militias blamed for killing thousands in Darfur — but it backed away from directly threatening sanctions.

Sudan, situated in north-east Africa, has been racked by civil war for the past 18 years¹, and renewed conflicts between the the government and two rebel groups in early 2003 have forced an estimated 1 million people to flee from villages in the war-torn western Darfur region.² The refugee crisis — combined with poor water sanitation, harsh weather conditions, and diminished crop harvests — have created what the United Nations now calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis."³

Since conflicts renewed, 10,000 people have been killed, mainly by the government anti-rebellion forces, the Janjaweed. The strategy is to bomb villages and towns from aircraft before carrying out attacks, in order to tackle the insurrection.⁴ The Janjaweed has been accused of human rights abuses and Sudanese women have told of mass rape.

Today's most pressing humanitarian needs are in the western Darfur region and in neighboring Chad, where more than 100,000 have fled.⁵ As a result of drought and overpopulation of camps, wells dug by aid groups quickly dry up. Recently, as rainstorms have begun, camp hygiene has worsened: dead animals, human waste, and disease infect the water. More than 1.2 million displaced persons live in 140 camps, where Crude Mortality Rates are double emergency threshold levels. Amongst refugees, there is a 25 percent malnutrition rate, and only one doctor exists for every 50,000 people.⁶

Food is scarce, and 500,000 children currently face hunger.⁷ Food providers and aid workers have great logistical problems navigating the 600-kilometer border, with virtually no roads and heavy rains.⁸ Due to attacks on villages, people have been unable to plant crops, so that there will be no harvest this year. What remaining crops they had were looted and destroyed along with their livestock during attacks.⁹

To date, the World Food Programme has received only 42 percent of what they require for emergency operation.¹⁰ WFP Spokesman Christiane Berthiaume estimates their group can only serve 500,000 of the 800,000 who need food.¹¹

While most of the $23 million that the UN appealed for last September was raised, since then needs have quadrupled, and the people of Sudan now require a minimum $115 million in international relief funds to tackle famine, disease, and shelter needs of the refugees.¹²

To find out more about the crisis in Sudan and on how to make contributions, please refer to websites of the following organizations: