Agencies focus on IDPs health, housing and food needs

Humanitarian agencies continued their efforts to alleviate the health, housing and food needs of displaced persons and their hosts in Darfur, western Sudan, while grappling with a multimillion dollar shortfall in donor funding. UN agencies were due to move more than 2,700 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from schools where they had been living since February, to a new extension of the Krinding camp on the outskirts of Al Geneina, the main town in West Darfur State, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported. "OCHA and Islamic Relief Worldwide met with camp leaders earlier this week to prepare them for the move," Jennifer Abrahamson, OCHA Sudan spokesperson, told IRIN on Wednesday. "The school year began in early August and many children have not been able to attend class, causing added friction in [Al] Geneina town." "Once they arrive at the new location, the UN and other agencies will provide them with food, plastic sheeting, indigenous materials used to build traditional dwellings and other crucial supplies," she added. Abrahamson said OCHA and Catholic Relief Services were also planning to move up to 13,000 IDPs next week from Abazar School to Ashara Buyut, a new camp on the edge of town that was being prepared on land provided by the Sudanese government. The IDPs around Al Geneina are among some 1.2 million people displaced by insecurity in Darfur. Illness stalks IDPs The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Tuesday that the IDPs and host communities in Darfur were facing several health problems, including malnutrition, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, hepatitis E and conflict-related trauma. Already, three cases of polio have been confirmed in the town of Kass in South Darfur, three months before WHO was to have given Sudan a certificate declaring the country polio-free. WHO said: "The possibility of outbreaks of communicable diseases is particularly elevated [due to] limited amounts of potable water, low standards of environmental hygiene, declining nutritional status, and low vaccination coverage." It said 12 health problems were being monitored by experts: acute watery diarrhoea; acute respiratory infections; malaria; measles; meningitis; acute jaundice syndrome; acute flaccid paralysis; bloody diarrhoea; neonatal tetanus; fever of unknown origin; severe malnutrition; and injuries. According to WHO, the number of suspected hepatitis E cases in Darfur had risen to 2,432, with a total of 41 deaths by 20 August. "This is an increase from a total of 625 cases and 22 deaths related to acute jaundice syndrome, most certainly hepatitis E, recorded from 22 May to 30 July 2004," WHO said. The health agency added that the IDPs were not able to access all the drinking water they needed, and some children had not been vaccinated. It added that there was also the risk of cholera affecting the IDPs, who were living in overcrowded camps. "WHO is concerned by the lack of primary health care services, including insufficient supplies of essential medicines and lack of health personnel to provide essential health services, in both Darfur and Eastern Chad," the report said. "Access to hospitals is extremely limited outside of the State capitals. The living conditions within IDP camps also expose those living in the vicinity to communicable diseases," it added. WHO said some US $1 million was needed per month to maintain its operations in Darfur. "The funds currently available will permit the continuation of present operations until the end of September [... ] More funds are urgently needed, especially if the demands increase due to further disease outbreaks," it said. According to the OCHA financial tracking system (FTS), unmet requirements for the UN response to the Darfur crisis totalled $255 million as at 27 August. This was equivalent to 52 percent of required needs. Some $73 million in outstanding pledges remained to be received, while a pledging gap of $182 million was looming. Speaking to donors and UN representatives meeting in Geneva to discuss the funding situation for Darfur on Friday, FTS Manager Robert Smith, said donors had responded well to the crisis, but humanitarian needs had grown over 200 percent from May to August 2004. In Khartoum, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Wednesday received eight all-terrain trucks flown to Sudan with support from the United States Agency for International Development, WFP said in a statement. Some 24 trucks are to be flown-in over the next four days. This would be the final batch of a fleet of 120 all-terrain vehicles brought in to reinforce WFP’s work in Darfur, the agency said. Most were to be used in West Darfur, where the rainy season had made road transport difficult, it added. According to WFP, the first convoy of 21 trucks had reached El-Fasher in North Darfur while a second convoy of 35 trucks was due to leave Khartoum for Darfur on Thursday, the same day that a third shipment of 40 was due to arrive in Port Sudan on the Red Sea.