Exodus from violent Sudan
2003-11-14 08:28
Cairo - International relief agencies are sounding the alarm about a looming food crisis in western Sudan as they report a growing number of people fleeing militias burning their villages and farmland.
The United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan warned on Monday that the problem there "may emerge as the worst humanitarian crisis in the Sudan since 1998" when tens of thousands of people died in a region just to the south.
The UN co-ordinator's office has in the past month raised its estimate from 400 0000 to 500 000 for the number of people displaced within the Darfur region, in addition to 70 000 who have actually crossed the border into Chad.
"That's a major population movement (to Chad). It's a pretty good sign that things are becoming intolerable," said Ben Parker, speaking for the humanitarian co-ordinator, Mukesh Kapila.
Since February, the region has been wracked by clashes between a rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), and government forces backed by Arab militias.
The SLM is demanding a better economic deal from Khartoum.
Despite reports of violations, a shaky government-rebel ceasefire brokered by Chad is holding.
However, there are no signs the Arab militias have stopped burning villages and farmland.
Out of control
Conflicts have long simmered between ethnic Arab nomadic tribesmen and African farmers, but they appear to have spun out of control since the government used them in the war against the rebels, relief workers say.
Accurate figures and a clear assessment of the problem are hard to obtain as UN officials complain Khartoum is slow to grant them travel permits to a region that is already remote and dangerous to travel in.
Another problem is attracting donor contributions, Parker added.
The difficulty for aid agencies to obtain access and oversight in turn "discourages donors from pledging money," Parker said.
Parker said there are already reports of people suffering from severe malnutrition in camps, including children, as well as deaths from diarrhoea and malaria.
He said a severe food shortage could be noticeable within months, though he hesitated to use the word famine.
Poor villagers are scattered in small makeshift camps in the harsh, semi-arid plains and highlands of Sudan's West, South and North Darfur states as well as across the border in Chad, relief officials say.
The camps amount to sticks, bits of plastic as well as temporary grass huts, with the largest containing probably no more than 50 000 people. Some people camp out in the gardens of relatives.
One relief official said the Darfur region suffers from the same factors that produced the famine in the Bahr al-Ghazal region in 1998: limited access for relief groups, marauding militiamen, and entrenched poverty.
"The parallels are evocative," the official said on condition of anonymity.