Memorandum submitted by ECHO
ECHO'S MANDATE
AND INTEREST
IN THIS
INQUIRY
1. ECHO, the Directorate-General for Humanitarian
Aid of the European Commission (EC), funds relief operations for
victims of natural disasters and conflicts outside the European
Union (EU). Aid is implemented neutrally and impartially, straight
to victims, regardless of their race, religion and political beliefs.
ECHO is one of the biggest donors of humanitarian aid in the world.
In 2003, it provided Euro 600 million in funding. ECHO support
went to projects in more than 60 countries.
2. Since 1994, ECHO has committed more than
Euro 290 million for relief operations in Sudan. [31]While
its commitment has been focused on the Darfur region in 2004,
ECHO continues to monitor and address humanitarian needs elsewhere
in Sudan, particularly in the South where these needs are very
important.
OVERVIEW OF
THE HUMANITARIAN
SITUATION
3. The conflict in Darfur has led to what
has been described by the UN as the largest current humanitarian
crisis in the world. The appalling impact of the conflict on civilians
can be summarised as follows:
— The insecurity due to the conflict
has affected most of the inhabited areas;
— The conflict-affected population
in Darfur is estimated now at least 2 million people dependent
on humanitarian aid, including 1.6 million internally displaced
(IDPs) and about 400,000 residents directly affected;
— About 200,000 Sudanese refugees have
fled into Chad;
— Hundreds of towns, villages and other
settlements have been burnt, looted and depopulated;
— An estimated 70,000 persons have
died as a result of the conflict, and an unknown number as the
result of direct violence;
— Massive and serious violations of
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) have been committed against
civilians (eg rapes, indiscriminate attacks, destruction of properties),
which will often have long-term physical and psychological impact
on the victims.
CURRENT HUMANITARIAN
NEEDS
4. According to the most recent UN Humanitarian
Profile[32],
the approximate gaps in the provision of essential humanitarian
services are as follows[33]:
| Sector | Assisted in %
| Gap in % |
| Food aid | 70 | 30
|
| Shelter/NFI | 52 | 48
|
| Clean water | 40 | 60
|
| Sanitation | 42 | 58
|
| PHC | 67 | 33
|
| Basic drug supplies | 58 |
42 |
| Secondary health facilities | 58
| 42 |
| | |
5. The above table underlines that important gaps in
vital life-saving sectors remain, despite extensive relief efforts
in recent months. This trend can be explained by the fact that,
in conjunction with the enhancement in response capacity, target
population figures continued to grow steadily due to continued
conflict-induced displacement, distress, onward population movements
into the larger relief centres ("the pull factor"),
and newly gained access to certain areas.
6. These figures underestimate the reality, as there
are an unknown number of people living in dire needs in remote
areas whose needs have not been assessed yet.
7. Even if the fighting stops and the security situation
swiftly stabilises, the people affected will stay dependent on
humanitarian aid in the medium term. Their dependency will be
maintained by the fact that they have lost most of their assets
and that the next harvest will certainly be very poor. Then any
rupture in the humanitarian aid, especially in the food aid pipeline,
would have catastrophic consequences.
RISK ASSESSMENT
AND CONSTRAINTS
8. Risks and dangers for local communities and humanitarian
factors will remain abundant in Darfur as long as there is no
durable peace agreement:
— Continued escalation in the conflict, resulting
in new influx of IDPs;
— Forced relocation/repatriation;
— Aggravation of the insecurity for humanitarian
workers, expanding the "no go" areas;
— Resumption of bureaucratic impediments;
— Development of a chaotic and anarchic situation
in Darfur;
— Disease outbreak or epidemics;
— A new bad rainy season;
— Decrease in the interest of media and international
community for a lingering crisis.
9. For the time being, access to the neediest people
is the biggest problem faced by the humanitarian agencies. This
problem is mainly caused by three factors:
(1) Since the establishment of a UN-Government of Sudan
joint implementation mechanism (3 July 2004), administrative impediments
to humanitarian assistance have decreased in areas controlled
by the Government. However, impediments have not come to an end
in the rebel-controlled areas in spite of a UN-SLM/A agreement
(18 October 2004) establishing a travel notification system for
humanitarian agencies.
(2) There are severe logistical constraints, which become
critical during rainy season.
(3) The deteriorating security situation now represents
by far the main and most serious obstacle to humanitarian access.
The risk for agencies to be caught up in fighting has increased,
and the number of incidents involving aid workers is on the rise
(eg truck drivers shot, humanitarian items stolen, abductions,
threats). On 10 October 2004, two aid workers were killed in North-Darfur
when their vehicle was hit by a landmine. On 22 November, more
than 30 aid workers were evacuated by African Union helicopters
from Tawilla town where heavy fighting was raging. This highly
volatile and worsening security environment has led several agencies
to suspend operations and/or to withdraw from some areas. This
has had serious detrimental effects, delaying or preventing distribution
of aid to people in desperate conditions.
THE EUROPEAN
COMMISSION'S
HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE
10. The Darfur region is not new to the European Commission
(EC). It has been supporting aid programmes for many years in
this marginalised, drought prone region. Since the beginning of
the crisis, the EC has steadily increased funding for protection
and assistance to the victims. So far, the EC has mobilised Euro
92,4 million for humanitarian assistance, of which more than Euro
57 million have been channelled through ECHO, including Euro 14
million for Sudanese refugees in Chad. The European Commission
has just earmarked an additional Euro 51 million to be managed
by ECHO (decisions in preparation) for the people affected by
the conflict in Sudan. About Euro 10 million of this new allocation
will contribute to the World Food Programme's (WFP) massive food
aid distribution in Darfur.
11. In response to the Darfur crisis, ECHO has stepped
up its presence in the field opening an office in Nyala in addition
to its offices in Khartoum and Nairobi. One further office and
an antenna were opened in Chad in Ndjamena and Abeche in order
to monitor the situation of Sudanese refugees in Chad. The staffing
was increased accordingly in Brussels and in the field.
12. ECHO's strategy in Darfur is to assist not only IDPs
and refugees, but also the local hosting communities as well as
the villagers in need in remote areas. In addition to assisting
IDPs and refugees directly triggered by the conflict, ECHO's strategy
takes into the account the needs of:
— hosting communities; [34]
— affected residents living in remote and so far
underserved areas;
— the "old caseload" IDPs from Bahr Al
Ghazal in Darfur, as they have also become affected by the new
conflict.
— The principal objective of ECHO's interventions
is to provide life-saving assistance to the victims of the conflict.
13. ECHO is working with 32 partners in Darfur: UN humanitarian
organisations (60% of funding), INGOs (35%) and the Red Cross
Movement (including International Committee of the Red Cross:
5%).
14. ECHO's funding is covering all relevant components
of this complex emergency/displacement setting. The specificities
of this complex crisis (eg insecurity, limited access, delivery
gaps in all humanitarian sectors) justify that many humanitarian
agencies may follow an integrated "multisectorial" approach
in their interventions. The components funded are:
Food aid and food security
— Support to food distribution implementing partners;
— Targeted emergency household food security inputs
to selected communities. [35]
Protection, IHL and care for special groups
— Dissemination/training on IHL and basic principles;
— Field studies on basic protection issues (eg sexual
violence, forced relocations);
— Strengthening of local community protection mechanisms;
— Tracing and family reunifications where feasible;
— Interventions towards the parties to the conflict
to remind them of their obligations with regard to IHL.
Shelter and non-food items (NFIs)
— Provision of plastic sheeting and/or basic local
building materials, as well as basic household non-food items
such as clothing, kitchen sets, mosquito nets, blankets, cooking
fuel;
— Reinforcement of up-stream parts of the shelter/NFI
supply pipelines as well as down-stream distribution systems.
Water and environmental sanitation
— In IDP settings, distribution of soap, water containers,
hygiene promotion through outreach workers, construction of latrines,
vector control, waste water drainage, clean up campaigns, burial
of animal carcasses and human corpses;
— In IDP settings, improved water supply through
a wide array of options ranging from tinkering to the repair and
improvement of existing sources such as hand pumps;
— In remote locations, when possible and relevant,
repair of existing water sources.
Health and nutrition
— Further nutritional surveys where required;
— Establishment or continuation of therapeutic and
supplementary feeding programmes (centre-based or community-based)
in areas with highest malnutrition rates;
— Mass measles vaccination in IDP settings not previously
immunized, and support to ongoing EPI where possible;
— Reducing risk of outbreaks and epidemics of communicable
diseases (eg malaria);
— Targeted inputs to restore or create a minimum
level of basic preventive health outreach and awareness in areas
with high number of IDPs;
— Support for improved (secondary and tertiary)
care for victims of various types of violence, evolving around
issues such as sexual violence, HIV/AIDS, mental health care,
surgery for the wounded and obstetric;
— Mobile clinics to enhance outreach to scattered
IDPs.
Common services
— Bolster cross-cutting domains such as co-ordination,
information, security, mine awareness, humanitarian flights and
other forms of transport, logistics, aid flow management, site
planning and camp management, so as to facilitate a co-ordinated,
timely, appropriate and safe response in the above-mentioned sectors.
15. ECHO will continue putting emphasis on the effectiveness
and quality of aid, as well as the good co-ordination between
the various agencies operating in the field. ECHO sees that there
is room for improvement with regard to co-ordination, especially
for protection activities.
16. ECHO supports the establishment of a co-ordination
mechanism which ensures a clear separation between humanitarian
and non humanitarian actors.
17. Besides its support to humanitarian agencies, the
EC has constantly urged the warring parties to abide by the IHL
and to respect the concluded agreements (eg the two Abuja protocols
on security and humanitarian situation signed on 9 November 2004).
The EC has financially facilitated the talks between Government
and rebels, and provided a significant support to the African
Union's observation mission (Euro 92 million).
FINAL COMMENTS
18. At this present time; the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur is primarily a protection crisis.
19. In order to alleviate the suffering of the people
in Darfur, the most urgent priority is the end of violence and
violations of IHL.
20. Although it has progressed since the beginning of
the crisis, access of humanitarian agencies to the victims remains
a major issue, mainly due to security reasons. The improvement
of the security situation is of utmost importance with regard
to effectiveness of humanitarian aid.
21. At least two million people are fully dependent on
humanitarian assistance for their basic needs. Regardless of any
developments in the political and security situation, the needs
will remain over the forthcoming months. Hence in the medium term,
it will be necessary to continue the massive humanitarian response
by the International Community.
22. ECHO will remain committed to playing a pivotal role
in this collective, vital effort as long as there are needs.
23. At the same time, ECHO will continue its support
to the victims of the conflict in other regions of Sudan, where
thousands of suffering people live out of the media spotlight.
December 2004
31
See Annex 1. Back
32
Darfur Humanitarian Profile Number 7, 1 October 2004. Back
33
These figures concern only the areas accessible and where needs
could be assessed. Back
34
In certain cases 20 families are hosted and supported by one
host household. Back
35
Eg animal health, emergency seeds and tools. Back
|
