Humanitarian crisis “nightmare” for US

Hunger and war have made Sudan one of the most immediate humanitarian challenges for the US, one of “the three nightmares” it faces, according to the US special humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Andrew Natsios. “Many of us are horrified at the very serious humanitarian situation in Sudan, caused by both drought and war,” AlertNet has quoted him as saying at a forum of voluntary agencies and relief NGOs in Washington, USA. “In spite of our [USAID] assistance and the good work of the NGOs and UN agencies working in Sudan, the situation is still grim,” Natsios said, according to AlertNet, a global news service for the international disaster relief community and the public. Natsios referred to the threat of starvation, which he said was perhaps worse than during the Sahelian drought of the 1980s, sweeping northern Sudan. He said the US had pledged an extra 40,000 mt of food aid for both sides in Sudan’s conflict “so we can move fairly rapidly to stop this crisis from turning into a famine.”

Natsios said USAID had an important role to play in supporting US national interests, which were often described in a dark, negative way even though there was often “an overlap between humanitarian instincts and the geo-political interests of the US.”
Natsios said the four pillars of a restructured USAID would be: the Global Development Alliance, investing in and promoting public-private partnerships between the public sector, US companies and NGOs; economic growth and agriculture (incorporating agricultural development, environmental sustainability and the development of human capital, especially basic education for girls); global health (uniting USAID’s programmes on women’s reproductive health, children’s health, infectious disease and nutrition, and especially HIV/AIDS); and conflict prevention and developmental relief. This latter pillar would incorporate humanitarian assistance, transition assistance, and the integration of democracy and governance, he said.

“I believe deeply in our foreign assistance mission, and I am excited to have an opportunity to make a difference for poor people around the world,” AlertNet quoted Natsios as saying. Between the Sudanese conflict’s religious dimensions (with the Islamist government battling predominantly Christian and animist southern forces) and the Khartoum government’s alleged terrorism connection, Sudan remained a high-profile issue in the US, it added. [for more details, go to: http://www.alertnet.org/]