2 Events on the ground: Continuing
insecurity and the humanitarian response
4. The UN Secretary General's October report stated
that fresh violence in September had forced IDPs who had returned
to their villages for the agricultural season to once again seek
refuge in the camps[5].
There have been mixed messages on the humanitarian situation.
The UN states that the number of people affected by the conflict
has stabilised and that the overall humanitarian situation, measured
in terms of food deliveries and World Health Organisation (WHO)
mortality surveys, continues to improve[6].
The Secretary of State pointed to the increasing number of people
being fed by the World Food Programme (WFP)[7]
and to a decline in one type of violence, "attacks on people
in their homes and the ending of aerial bombardment"[8].
It is clear to us, however, that the reason for the decline
in the type of attacks seen in 2004 is that the de facto
ethnic cleansing has succeeded and people have fled their homes
for the protection of the camps.
5. To concentrate only on the WFP and WHO statistics
is to miss the wider point. The figure which counts is the 1.8
million people who remain in camps and who, as Hilary Benn told
us, "are not going to move until they think it is safe to
do so"[9]. Suliman
Baldo of the Crisis Group summed up the position:
"the worst violence done to the population
in Darfur is the fact that today there are 1.8 million people
in camps for the internally displaced by no choice of theirs.
This is a disruption of their traditional livelihood and this
is the worst thing that you could do to a traditional subsistence
community. It is a situation we have had in northern Uganda for
the last 20 years. It is turning into a normality." [10]
Dr James Smith of the Aegis Trust added that the
number of people at risk and dependent on aid had increased by
one million over the last year[11],
so that despite the apparent improvement painted by the UN Secretary
General, there had been an increase in vulnerability. The
increase in the number of people dependent on humanitarian assistance
is all the more worrying since the ability of aid agencies to
deliver assistance - and not only in West Darfur - has been seriously
affected by the increase in banditry and violence.
6. Violent attacks are not the only threat which
humanitarian workers face. Earlier in the year Human Rights Watch
accused the GoS of "stepping up its bureaucratic war on the
vast humanitarian relief effort that is attempting to help millions
of Darfurians. Since December [2004], the Sudanese government
has been trying to intimidate some humanitarian agencies in Darfur
through arbitrary arrests, detentions and other more subtle forms
of harassment."[12]
Commentators have claimed that obstruction is under-reported as
humanitarian workers fear reprisals and the withdrawal of cooperation
by the GoS. The fear of reprisals led some organisations to request
the Committee not to publish their written submissions.
5 UNSC, Monthly report of the Secretary-General on
Darfur, 14 October 2005, paragraph 10 Back
6
UNSC, Monthly report of the Secretary-General on Darfur, 14 October
2005, paragraph 19 Back
7
Ev 21. WFP performed well during the rainy season and distributed
food to 2.5 million beneficiaries in September 2005 compared with
1.3 million in September 2004. Back
8
Q25 Back
9
Q7 Back
10
Q48 Back
11
Q49 Back
12
Human Rights Watch press release, May 24, 2005; see also UNSC,
Monthly report of the Secretary-General on Darfur, 23 December2005,
paragraph 25. Back
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