Select Committee on International Development Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Drawn from the MSF Report: Persecution, Intimidation and Failure of Assistance in Darfur[115]

  There is a war in the West of Sudan, with two rebel movements—the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) having launched an insurgency against the rule of Khartoum. After dramatic attacks in early 2003, the Government of Sudan countered with a decisive military response as well as arming and organising tribal militias to launch a campaign of violence and forced displacement against the civil population (presumed to support the rebel insurrection). Mass violence against civilians in Darfur began with a wave of attacks against villages in February 2003 and escalated in summer 2003.

  For over a year, the people of Darfur have endured a vicious campaign of violence and terror which has led to huge numbers of deaths and forced more than a million people to flee from their destroyed villages in search of safety. Over a year after their escape from their villages and after countless promises from the Government of Sudan and world leaders, safety has still not been found. The victims of violence were forced out of their homes; their homes were destroyed; they were pursued during their flight; harassed and violated during flight and they have continued to be persecuted and intimidated as they seek shelter in crowded and miserable displaced settlements. The pervasiveness of the violence against civilians in Darfur, as well as its duration over time represents a crime of enormous magnitude. The failure to stop the violence against civilians in Darfur was matched with an equally staggering failure to provide the necessary assistance for these devastated communities in the first year of the conflict.

  Patients in MSF clinics in Darfur and in neighbouring Chad have repeatedly recounted to us how armed militia attacked their villages, killing and raping the inhabitants. These people saw not only their homes destroyed, but also the militia purposefully destroyed their crops and water sources, ensuring that their way of life was torched along with their houses. Almost 1.8 million[116] people were forced to flee their homes, including 200,000 who crossed the border to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad. Very few of them envisage how and when they can return and take up their lives.

  Humanitarianism is based on the notion that people have the right to find safety and succour amidst the violence of war. In Darfur the villagers fleeing violence and persecution have found little of either, as the violence and intimidation continued in their places of refuge. Rape and killings have been commonplace in the towns and camps where over a million displaced people now huddle.

  The scale and impact of violence has been documented in a series of nutritional and retrospective mortality studies, which MSF conducted through the spring and summer of 2004. [117]The results of these surveys reflect the pervasiveness of the violence and appalling consequences of the atrocities committed against people in Darfur, but also the failure of the response to aid the victims of this violence.

  In all surveys conducted by MSF, the leading cause of death for those over the age of five years was violence rather than disease or malnutrition. In one study in Wade Saleh district in West Darfur, 60% of the deaths in people above five years of age were due to violence. Surveys completed by MSF in September 2004 showed that the leading cause of death (32.5%) suffered by displaced people living in Kalma camp over the previous seven months was violence and this figure was a staggering 78% of those aged 18-49 years. Among the displaced population in Muhajaria and Shariya, who had not been exposed to violence in the first part of the year, mortality was relatively low. But mortality recently surged due to new fighting and recent displacement—almost entirely in those over five years of age (95.5% of all deaths in those aged 18-49 years was due to violence in the previous 30 days prior to survey).

  While men seemed to be the primary target, women and children were also killed in large numbers. Studies in the large displaced camp of Murnei in West Darfur showed that 75% of the deaths of adult women resulted from violence. In the villages around Murnei, which had been torched in the campaign of terror, an average of 5% of the total population was killed. Those who survived told MSF staff of people being locked in houses as they were set afire. MSF staff saw clear signs of torture evident amongst some of the survivors.

  The camps of refuge have been turned into congregations of fear, in which people claim they live under the guard of some of the same armed men who burned their villages and killed their families. The displaced are too scared to go home and yet frightened to remain where they are. In several camps, people were too scared to transport wounded children to a hospital, fearing to be attacked on the road. Although the Government of Sudan has claimed that the violence has been brought under control, the displaced still face violence and intimidation.

  The massive violence against civil populations resulted in elevated mortality, destruction of livelihoods and flight. The terrified populations that crammed into towns and villages across Darfur, seeking relative safety then suffered a second calamity. These terrified populations faced suffering and death due to a massive public health crisis induced by deprivation during their ordeals and lack of shelter, water, food, an adequate sanitary environment and access to essential health care. The aid programme was one year late and remains inadequate.

  Even in the easily accessible Kalma camp, located 30 minutes from the major urban centre of Nyala, 3.2% of children still suffered from severe malnutrition in September 2004. For many months, the 75,000 people in Murnei camp were forced to survive on less then 1,000 kilo calories per day—less than half of what is minimally required to sustain a human being. Less than a third of the families in the large camps in Kass owned any soap—essential to avoiding diarrhoeal and skin diseases.

  The lack of assistance has forced people into desperate measures and dangerous survival mechanisms. In the displaced settlements, people are forced to search for firewood to exchange for food even though it means running the risk of rape for women, of execution for the men. Some told MSF that they were so desperate and so scared they would send the children out in the hours before dawn to search for wood—in the hope they would be less subject to attacks.

  In the full MSF report, MSF seeks to convey what has happened to the health of people in Darfur based on data emerging from our clinics and surveys. We do this in order to create some understanding of the magnitude and depth of the suffering and the failure to address these problems. We try to combine this with a human perspective gathered from the conversations and laments of the thousands who came to our clinics for assistance but who themselves were unable to remain silent about the atrocities committed against them and their families.

  While this picture of suffering, which has left hundreds of thousands of broken lives amidst the burned-out houses and villages of Darfur is a reflection of what has happened, we have to remind ourselves that this violence and suffering has still not ended. The people of Darfur continue to live in fear of violence and intimidation, even while an assistance effort goes on around them.

METHODOLOGY

  The report is based on a series of cross-sectional nutrition and mortality surveys[118] carried out in conjunction with Epicentre[119] in six locations of Darfur—as well as face-to-face encounters with displaced people and patients, reported by the teams working in West, South and North Darfur since the beginning of the year 2004.

MSF PRESENCE

  MSF currently has over 200 international aid workers and over 2,000 national staff working throughout the three States (West, North and South Darfur) and an additional 30 international staff and 160 national staff caring for Darfurian refugees in Chad. MSF medical teams in 26 locations in Darfur conduct medical consultations, treat victims of violence, care for severely and moderately malnourished children, improve water and sanitation conditions, and provide blanket feeding and other essential items for more than 700,000 displaced people in Darfur. Since the beginning of its operations, MSF has born witness to the extent and the nature of the violence against people in Darfur and its impact on the health and nutritional status of the population.

November 2004










115   http://www.msf.org/source/countries/africa/sudan/2004/1101/darfur2004-11-01.doc Back

116   United Nations, Darfur Humanitarian Profile No 7, October 1, 2004, p 2, UNHCR Press Release of 27 October 2004. Back

117   Epicentre surveys in Kalma, Kass and Muhajaria, September 2004; Epicentre survey in Habilah, August 2004; Epicentre survey in Kebkabyia, August 2004; Epicentre survey in Murnei and Zalingei, June 2004; MSF-Holland food and nutritional survey in Wadi Saleh and Mukjar provinces, April 2004. Back

118   Epicentre surveys in Kalma, Kass and Muhajaria, September 2004; Epicentre survey in Habilah, August 2004; Epicentre survey in Kebkabyia, August 2004; Epicentre survey in Murnei and Zalingei, June 2004; MSF-Holland food and nutritional survey in Wadi Saleh and Mukjar provinces, April 2004. Back

119   Epicentre is a non-profit organisation created in 1987 by Me«decins sans Frontie"res, which groups health professionals specialised in public health and epidemiology. In 1996, Epicentre became a World Health Organisation Collaborating Center for Research in Epidemiology and Response to Emerging Diseases. www.epicentre.msf.org Back


 
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