UN forced to cut back aid

2005-12-01 21:20

London - Lack of money is forcing the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees to cut back aid to displaced Sudanese in Chad and Darfur even as violence escalates, the head of the UNHCR's regional operation said on Thursday.

Violence from conflicts among rebel groups, the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia in Darfur, Sudan, which seemed to be calming a few months ago, is becoming more sophisticated, said Craig Sanders, UNHCR's head of desk for Chad and Darfur.

Sanders spoke with the press at the UNHCR's London office on Thursday after meeting with delegates from the British Department for International Development.

His visit came two days after a new round of peace talks between Sudanese government officials and rebels from the Darfur region began in Nigeria.

Sanders compared what he saw on his visit to Sudan and Chad in July to what is happening now.

"A few months ago it was a relatively positive situation, but since then we've seen an increase in violence," he said.

Targeting peacekeepers

In the Darfur region of western Sudan, rebel groups are burning empty and half-abandoned villages, bringing camel and cattle herds into reclaimed villages to destroy crops before they can be harvested, and targeting the 7 700 peacekeepers in the area, Sanders said.

In the UNHCR's 12 refugee camps in neighbouring Chad, where 212 000 Sudanese have fled to escape fighting that erupted in Darfur in early 2003, hospitality is wearing thin as the refugees compete with local communities for water and firewood in the remote desert near the country's eastern border.

"We are very, very concerned," Sanders said.

Providing aid to refugees in Sudan and Chad is one of the most expensive humanitarian operations currently under way, and funding is getting scarcer, he said.

"We are having to tighten the belt. We are having to freeze certain activities," Sanders said. The UNHCR, which gets the majority of its funding from government, corporate and individual contributions, is $20m shy of its $81m budget for Sudan this year.

In Chad, it needs another $13m to fulfil its $31m budget.

Administrative spending has been capped at UNHCR, as has the procurement of items for refugees such as blankets. Services at refugee camps will be the next thing to be cut, Sanders said.

"If this continues, if we see a withdrawal of the humanitarian workers in this, it risks declining into chaos," Sanders said.

- SAPA