More money sought to aid Darfur genocide refugees

Alfred de Montesquiou

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The U.N. refugee agency appealed Tuesday for additional money to help millions displaced by violence in Darfur as Sudanese, African and U.N. officials negotiate a peacekeeping deal for the troubled region. Despite a peace agreement signed last May between the Sudanese government and a single rebel group, fighting has only worsened in Darfur, a vast region of western Sudan, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million chased from their home since 2003.

“With constant fighting between government troops and rebels opposed to the [peace agreement], as well as regular attacks by Arab militia on African tribes, there is no prospect of return” for the millions of people living in camps, said the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a statement appealing for funds Tuesday.

Darfur is the world’s largest ongoing humanitarian effort, with some 15,000 aid workers, including 1,000 from abroad, according to the U.N.

But 12 humanitarian workers have been killed in the past six months and several aid groups have warned that the increasing violence is pushing them to the “breaking point.” A major French aid group announced earlier this week it was pulling out of Darfur, while several others say they may do the same if warring factions continue denying them access to civilians and targeting humanitarian workers.

But the UNHCR, which has over 100 staff working in most of Darfur’s refugee camps, said it had no intention of leaving the region. Its appeal Tuesday for $19.7 million would cover most of its costs for 2007 in Darfur, said Annette Rehrl, UNHCR’s spokeswoman for Sudan.

“We are determined to stay in Darfur; we provide the basic protection and if we go, everything goes,” Rehrl said by telephone.

The U.N. and others accuse Sudan’s government of arming and directing the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads as part of its counterinsurgency tactics. The UNCHR said in its appeal Tuesday that Arab militias burnt to the ground at least 25 villages in neighboring Chad in recent weeks, and observers in Darfur blame the janjaweed for widespread atrocities against tribes of ethnic African farmers.

The government denies controlling the janjaweed, and in turn accuses Chad of backing the rebel groups that refused a peace agreement.

Khartoum also denies accusations its air force indiscriminately bombs civilian villages.

“We bomb the people who are sabotaging the peace agreement, or rebel factions who attack the army and civilians,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq. The U.N. says a series of air raids earlier this month killed several villagers and breached cease-fire agreements.

On Monday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and urged him to “cease hostilities as an essential foundation for a successful peace process and humanitarian access” in Darfur.

Al-Bashir has opposed a Security Council resolution for some 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the 7,000-strong AU force deployed in Darfur, but his government appears to be edging toward a comprise deal for U.N. troops to join African ones in a common mission.

“We agreed to accelerate the joint U.N.-AU efforts for the political process and the preparation for a peacekeeping mission,” Ki-moon told reporters Monday after meeting with al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir has sent mixed signals for months on the size of any U.N. presence he is willing to allow in Darfur.

(Associated Press)