Darfur: need for urgent action

John Holmes
The Hindu, 26 April

Humanitarian action can never be a substitute for a political solution. The people of Darfur need it now more than ever.

THREE YEARS ago this April, my predecessor first brought Darfur to the attention of the United Nations Security Council. And now this April, I too have gone before the Security Council to brief them on the ongoing tragedy of Darfur following my recent mission to the region. The cost of inaction continues to be paid in countless thousands of lives lost. How many more Aprils can the people of Darfur endure?

In three years, the number of people dependent on an increasingly fragile humanitarian lifeline in Darfur has quadrupled from one million to nearly four million people. In recent months, access and safety for the thousands of aid workers seeking to assist them have declined precipitously. How can we sustain the world's largest humanitarian operation when needs are growing but our ability to help is severely curtailed?

A quick look at the numbers shows how much we have achieved in the last three years — and how much is at risk should bureaucracy and intimidation make humanitarian work untenable.

In April 2004 when the humanitarian operation in Darfur began to kick into high gear, we had just over 200 aid workers on the ground assisting 350,000 people displaced by the conflict. Today 13,000 aid workers, primarily Sudanese, are assisting almost four times that number. Global malnutrition has been halved since mid-2004, and mortality rates slashed to well below emergency threshold rates.

Unending problems

But these lifesaving gains could only too quickly evaporate. The problems in Darfur continue unabated and have spilled over into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic. Some 420,000 people in Darfur have been displaced from their homes since last May, despite the signing of a peace agreement then, bringing the total number of people displaced to over two million — one-third of Darfur's population. Rape and other sexual attacks continue, committed by all sides in a climate of total impunity. Malnutrition rates have begun to climb again, particularly outside the camps in remote, insecure areas.

Our ability to reach people in need is meanwhile shrinking to dangerously low levels. We judge that only half of those affected by the conflict in Darfur are now regularly receiving clean water and primary health care. Fewer than 40 per cent receive sanitation services. Worse still, at any one time, nearly one in four people in need can no longer be reached with any assistance, meaning that some 900,000 people are out of reach of the humanitarian lifeline.

Aid workers are under attack as well, in direct contravention to the Geneva Conventions. Between June and December 2006, 12 relief workers were killed, more than in the previous two years combined. Last year, 120 humanitarian vehicles were hijacked. Hundreds of thousands of civilians can be cut off from life-sustaining help if and when humanitarian organisations withdraw from areas where their staff have been attacked. All the parties to the conflict share responsibility for these attacks.

Meanwhile, a stream of government red tape has severely hampered aid operations, sapped morale, and limited freedom of movement. A government which should obviously be helping those who are saving the lives of its own citizens has often seemed little interested in doing so.

So what is to be done? First, there should be an immediate end to all attacks against civilians by all sides in the conflict, be they government-backed militias, rebel forces or other conflict parties.

Last week (April 16), the Government of Sudan indicated its acceptance of the second United Nations support package designed to strengthen the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping efforts in Darfur. We welcome this and all steps to increase protection for civilians in Darfur. But speedy, effective implementation remains of the essence, and requires Khartoum's full, expeditious cooperation. The people of Darfur can brook no further delay in the deployment of the full U.N.-AU hybrid peacekeeping force.

Second, we need safe, unimpeded access so that humanitarians can reach all those in need. One welcome note from my recent mission to Sudan was the signing of a Joint Communiqué in which Khartoum re-affirmed and extended its 2004 pledge to ease up on visa, customs, and other requirements. Specific promises have been made. I intend to keep a close eye on their implementation.

Finally, let us not forget that humanitarian action, no matter how vitally needed, can never be a substitute for a political solution. We simply cannot sustain this massive aid effort for years at a stretch. Three years into this conflict, the people of Darfur need a political solution now more than ever.

I urge all parties to the conflict to support the efforts of the Special Envoys from the AU and the U.N. in ensuring adherence to an immediate ceasefire, and getting all the parties around the negotiating table to reach a lasting peace settlement.

"April is the cruellest month," wrote T.S. Eliot. I fervently hope that next April, still less the April after that, I will not be standing before the Security Council with fresh news of still more death and displacement in Darfur. It's time to stop this disastrous conflict. — Courtesy: U.N. Information Centre, New Delhi.

(The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.)