Renewed Violence Limits Aid to 200,000 People in Darfur, Sudan
18 November 2004
Security in Darfur, in western Sudan, has deteriorated in the past two weeks, severely restricting the delivery of aid to 200,000 people in that region, international aid agency Oxfam said today.Gunfire between rival armed groups, ambushes, and looting have forced the agency to abandon road travel to five towns and to rely instead on helicopters to deliver supplies.
The increase in violence comes as the United Nations Security Council, which has twice passed resolutions on the conflict in Darfur, convenes in Nairobi for the first day of a rare set of meetings outside of New York. Sudan is one of the issues the council is set to discuss.
"Without road access, one of our drilling rigs is not able to reach Kebkabiya, where we urgently need to start drilling for water," said Caroline Nursey, Oxfam's regional director. "The dry season is starting to close in on us, and water supplies are starting to become scarce for the thousands of people camped in the town."
Improving humanitarian access had been one of the Security Council's few claims of success, said Nursey, but the fighting and looting in Darfur are reversing any gains made. The conflict, now nearly two years old, has forced up to 1.7 million people to flee their homes and seek safety in crowded camps scattered across Darfur and neighboring Chad.
"Humanitarian access is worse now than it was six months ago when the Security Council passed its first resolution," said Nursey.
While the council is now preparing to discuss yet another resolution on Sudan, aid agencies worry that internal divisions will limit the resolution's effectiveness.
"There has been lots of talk over the last year, and commitments from all sides to end abuses, but security in Darfur has not improved," said Nursey, who called on the council to mark a turning point at the Nairobi meetings. "Every member of the Security Council must agree to put their words into action to end the violence in Darfur," she said. "Until they do so, claims of success will ring increasingly hollow."
