UNICEF head says crisis worsening in Darfur

The crisis in Sudan's western region of Darfur is worsening and necessitates immediate action to avert a "humanitarian disaster", according to head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy. "It is clear to me that a worsening crisis is upon us," she said following a visit to Darfur. "The number of displaced people - already estimated at close to one million men, women and children - continues to grow." A ceasefire agreement signed in Chad on 8 April by Khartoum and Darfur's two rebel groups has been repeatedly violated, with ongoing reports of fighting and militia attacks on civilians in Darfur's three states. In Southern Darfur State, Janjawid attacks were reported last week in at least 18 villages northwest of Nyala, the state capital, and near Malamm, forcing an unknown number of people to flee the areas, the UN reported. "During my short visit to Darfur, it was clear that people are continuing to flee their villages, if not on the same large scale as in previous months," Bellamy said. The images of burnt-out villages and markets on the road from al-Junaynah, the capital of Western Darfur, southward to Sisi were stark in her mind, she said, and they were repeated hundreds of times across Darfur. The Sudanese government has been accused of a policy of "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur by supporting Arab militias, known as the Janjawid, to push hundreds of thousands of non-Arabs off their farm-land by killing them, raping women, destroying water and food sources, and burning down their villages. The government has admitted backing the militias to fight Darfur's two rebel groups but has not accepted responsibility for their actions against civilians. The presence in Darfur of bands of thousands of Janjawid and ongoing attacks mean that an estimated one million people have missed the harvesting season and will remain displaced throughout the rainy season. It is now "a race against time" to provide people with basic necessities such as food, shelter, health care, clean water and sanitation to allow them to survive, according to Bellamy. At the same time, however, there were not enough NGOs in Darfur to provide aid, she said. "I seldom recall coming to a place with this expansion of internally displaced people, to see so little going on. There are almost no NGOs," she stated. "I understand it's not their fault - it's hard to get in. We in the UN have to work with NGOs, so the limited number of partners is a real problem for us." Gaining access to Darfur for aid workers has become easier. Last month Khartoum announced that with effect from 24 May it would issue visas within 48 hours and waive the requirement for travel permits to Darfur, which had been causing huge delays in delivering aid. But agencies need time to build up their capacity on the ground, and are still reporting access-related difficulties. Some had reported that equipment essential to operations such as vehicles and medical drugs were being held up in customs for months, the UN said last week. Other agencies were having trouble getting mobile radios into Darfur, as well as licences to operate there.