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Continuing Violence in Darfur Deters Humanitarian Missions

February 17, 2005

"Insecurity and Detention of Staff" Affect Transport of Food, Aid

NEW YORK – In response to yesterday's (Feb 16) report on Sudan by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on the findings of the International Commission of Inquiry regarding the conflict in Darfur, the humanitarian agency Church World Service says that the debate over the location and composition of a war crimes tribunal diverts attention from the immediate priority, which must be ending the ongoing genocide and attending to humanitarian needs, which remain unmet after months of security struggles.

Reports from Darfur are 'discouraging. Insecurity and detention of NGO staff have meant that programs in some camps for the displaced have either been scaled down or curtailed completely for short periods," according to CWS Executive Director and CEO Rev. John L. McCullough. "The transport of food has been affected, meaning an increase in malnutrition particularly in the age group of 10 and younger."

The report of the International Commission of Inquiry follows the widely-celebrated January 9 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement related to the longstanding North-South conflict. Said CWS partner the New Sudan Council of Churches at that time, "The euphoria that has been triggered by this historic event is unprecedented in our part of the world." But yesterday the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, said that the continuing atrocities in Darfur could derail the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, today the CWS office at the United Nations, together with Africa Action, a Washington-based group, joined to again call for the international community to act immediately to stop the ongoing violence. "The African Union monitoring mission in Darfur must be reinforced," said Africa Action’s Ann-Louise Colgan, Director of Policy Analysis and Communication, and Marie Clarke Brill, Director of Public Education and Mobilization.

The U.S. has called for a draft UN Security Council resolution that would establish a UN Mission in Sudan to enforce the peace agreement and augment the African Union forces currently in the region.

CWS’s McCullough spoke in November 2004 at a public seminar at the United Nations, asking "When will the international community take the necessary steps?" to act on behalf of Sudan’s 1.5 million displaced people, mostly women and children. Church World Service is helping to support a $17.5 million effort with international partners alongside the Sudan Council of Churches to provide shelter, medicine, water, and tools to people living in camps, having fled their villages under attack.

Most estimates suggest 70,000 people have been killed in Darfur, a vast and impoverished region in the west of Sudan, since the conflict there began in early 2003. Over 1.5 million people are internally displaced and another 200,000 others live as refugees in neighboring Chad, where a meeting took place today between Sudanese officials and Darfur rebels to discuss implementing the ceasefire agreements. The talks were attended by international mediators and Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the African Union commission.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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