UN teams arrive in Darfur to help people affected by war

The United Nations said on Thursday that a team of its experts had arrived in Sudan to assess the humanitarian needs in war-affected Darfur region of western Sudan, while front-line UN agencies had begun delivering and pre-positioning food and other supplies for 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). The 13-member Rapid Response Team had arrived in Nyala, Al-Junaynah and Al-Fashir, respectively the state capitals of Southern, Northern and Western Darfur, to assess the IDPs' needs for food, water, medical supplies and plastic sheeting, as well as preparations for a meningitis immunisation campaign for 60,000 children, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. A statement from the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi, confirmed that transporting and distributing relief to the affected people in Darfur through "the safe corridors specified by the government" had commenced. Both the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) earlier said they had begun airlifting food aid to thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad and to IDPs in Darfur. OCHA, however, warned that because the region remained highly volatile for both civilians and the humanitarian community, reaching the majority of those who needed help remained difficult. "This assistance is long overdue," Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a statement. "However, we are still not reaching the majority of those in need," he added. OCHA said the security situation outside the three capital towns of Darfur remained of particular concern, access to most areas being impaired by daily incidents of "militarised violence" on major roads routes. There had been increased incidences of systematic disruption of railroads and communications lines, while concerns over landmines and unexploded ordnance, constituted a new problem in Darfur, it added. Tom Vraalsen, the UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs to Sudan, who visited the capital, Khartoum, and Darfur this week, urged the parties to the conflict to cease hostilities. He also asked the Sudanese authorities to keep their promises on unimpeded access to the populations in need. About 800,000 people have been rendered internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, while over 130,000 others fled to neighbouring Chad following weeks of intense fighting between the Khartoum government and Darfur-based rebels. Since the fighting broke out a year ago between the rebel groups on the one hand and government troops and pro-government militias on the other hand, the UN had consistently received reports of systematic raids directed against civilian populations, UNOCHA said. President Umar Hasan al-Bashir last week, declared victory over the rebel groups and promised to open up safe humanitarian corridors to assist the affected population. "Ironically, at the moment we receive access clearances, [but] insecurity on the ground precludes us from accessing populations in need," Vraalsen said. "The parties must immediately cease hostilities, so that IDPs and refugees in Chad can voluntarily and safely return to their homes and start to rebuild a peaceful Darfur," he added. Meanwhile, the United States-based human rights advocacy group, Center for the Prevention of Genocide (CPG) said it had confirmed that tribal leaders in Nyala were arrested by the government after they had met representatives of the US international development agency, USAID. The arrests, it said, were made after representatives of the Fur tribe met the US officials to provide the latter with first-hand accounts of the "genocidal violence" and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. "In a clear case of minority and political oppression, the leaders were arrested in the town of Nyala, following their meeting with representatives from USAID," CPG said in a statement.