July the worst month of Darfur conflict, aid agencies say

July was the most dangerous month of the three-year-old conflict in Darfur for aid workers, four major international humanitarian agencies working in the region said on Tuesday.

Violence has escalated since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on 5 May between the government and the largest rebel group. Eight Sudanese humanitarian workers were killed in July alone. The increasing insecurity is also limiting the ability of aid agencies to reach people in need, with potentially disastrous consequences, warned the four agencies - Care, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Oxfam International and World Vision - in a statement.

"The level of violence being faced by humanitarian workers in Darfur is unprecedented," Manuel da Silva, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, told reporters in Khartoum on Monday.

"The situation is made even more serious by the fact that the need for humanitarian assistance is increasing while our ability to respond is being ever more restricted," Da Silva added.

The DPA has little popular support among civilians in Darfur, many of whom continue to live in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refuse to return to their villages for fear of renewed attacks. Tensions in many of the camps for the region’s two million IDPs have risen. As a result of the killings last month, many Sudanese staff of international NGOs and UN agencies fear for their safety if they enter camps.

"Most of these people were killed inside camps by mobs," Da Silva said. "There are 13,000 national staff compared to 1,000 international [in Darfur]. It is not possible to function without national staff."

The cash-strapped African Union (AU) police and troops who are supposed to provide security appear to have reduced their efforts to protect civilians since the signing of the DPA, the agencies observed. They pleaded with the pan-African body to prioritise a continuous presence and regular patrols around the camps.

"The danger is clear. If we cannot access the people who need assistance then the humanitarian situation is going to rapidly deteriorate. As usual in Darfur, civilians are the ones to suffer - from being attacked, displaced, and also from being denied access to the assistance that they urgently need," Kurt Tjossen, spokesman for the IRC, said.

Since the signing of the DPA, violence has been widespread across Darfur due to the fragmentation of various rebel groups and escalating fighting between the signatories and non-signatories of the DPA. Banditry and general lawlessness are rife and militias, rebel groups and government forces have all clashed.

Three-and-a-half million people throughout Darfur are dependent on humanitarian aid, yet vast areas such as the Jebel Marra mountains and large parts of the northwestern region are almost completely inaccessible to aid agencies due to the violence and insecurity.