Darfur: 300,000 displaced persons cut off from all aid following rebel attack by UN News / IRIN News / UNICEF UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs 3:12pm 19th Nov, 2004   3 December 2004    Rape, fighting continue in Sudan's Darfur region despite accords - UN.    Despite agreements signed between Sudan's Government and rebels in the country's Darfur region, recent reports of sexual violence and rape persist, contributing to a tremendous sense of insecurity among internally displaced persons (IDPs), the United Nations human rights agency said today.    Women and young girls were afraid to leave the camps in some areas, and fighting continued to put civilians at risk in various places, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) spokesman José Luis Díaz told reporters in Geneva in a briefing on the findings of agency monitors in Darfur during November.    As an example of the ongoing conflict he cited the launching of 18 mortars by Government forces into the village of Masteri in West Darfur in response to an attack from that region. The UN has called the conflict the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, in which nearly 1.7 million people have been displaced and Janjaweed militias stand accused of killing and raping thousands of villagers after the rebels took up arms last year to demand a greater share of the economic resources of the area the size of France.    Attacks and counter-attacks have continued despite accords signed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on 9 November between the Government and two rebel groups - the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - aimed at improving the humanitarian and security situation.    Mr. Díaz said IDPs continued to distrust and fear the police and that widespread impunity continued, with reports that police still refused to record complaints of attacks. Armed Janjaweed militia and the Popular Defence Forces continued to roam throughout Darfur, contributing to the sense of insecurity. In South Darfur, there was an escalation in the number of forced relocations of IDPs.    He added that during the reporting period, there were apparently no arrests or trials of members of the Janjaweed. There were also reports of cases of abduction of civilians by the rebel Sudan Liberation Army in West Darfur.    26 November 2004    Darfur: 300,000 displaced persons cut off from all aid following rebel attack (UN News)    The United Nations emergency feeding agency said today that the security situation in western Sudan's Darfur region was deteriorating rapidly with 300,000 displaced people cut off from all aid following a rebel attack earlier this week in breach of ceasefire accords signed with the government.    The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and other humanitarian agencies have flown their staffers out of North Darfur after the rebel attack on Tawila and an air raid the following day when a bomb fell only 50 metres from the nutritional centre of one humanitarian agency, WFP spokesman Simon Pluess told a news briefing in Geneva. At the same time Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Sudan Jan Pronk called on all sides to immediately halt hostilities in what the UN has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis, in which nearly 1.7 million people have been displaced and Janjaweed militias stand accused of killing and raping thousands of villagers after the rebels took up arms last year to demand a greater share of economic resources.    The parties have to understand that neither the AU (African Union) nor the international community are prepared to sustain a process based on empty promises, Mr. Pronk said. The forthcoming days will be the test of their seriousness. If they fail to live up to their commitments, they have to realize that they will be held accountable by the AU Peace and Security Council and the United Nations Security Council.    While welcoming a reiteration by government and rebel officials at a meeting in NDjamena, capital of neighbouring Chad, yesterday to abide by the ceasefire accords signed in April and earlier this month, he urged all sides to see that this commitment is translated into concrete action on the ground by immediately halting hostilities.    It was the latest in a series of appeals by Mr. Pronk since the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) seized the town of Tawila in North Darfur on 22 November in what he called a clear violation of the accords. He reiterated his call to the government to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from air raids in countering the rebel attacks. The recent attacks by the SLA on Tawila and Kalma camp were acts of revenge for grievances pre-dating the Abuja Agreements, he said, referring to the humanitarian and security accords signed in the Nigerian capital earlier this month in an effort to set the April ceasefire agreement signed in NDjamena back on track. That's not acceptable. The Abuja Accords were meant to be a fresh start.    Mr. Pluess said that there were also reports of attacks by Janjaweed in West Darfur and by rebel groups. But despite the insecurity, WFP had managed to distribute 12,000 tons of food at its distribution points to feed another 600,000 people.    Nairobi.19 November 2004    Sudan Government and southern rebels sign peace pledge before UN Security Council. (IRIN News)    The Government of Sudan and southern rebels today pledged to end two decades of war by 31 December, signing a memorandum in front of the United Nations Security Council which had convened in neighbouring Kenya in a rare session outside New York to press for peace in Africa's largest county.    Immediately afterwards the 15-member body - meeting outside UN Headquarters in New York for the first time in 14 years and for just the fourth instance in half a century - unanimously adopted a resolution promising speedy aid once the war is formally ended and voicing the hope that the peace in the south would spill over into Darfur in the west, which the UN has termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.    The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was the climax of the two-day Council meeting in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, and the culmination of two years of talks between the parties. Secretary-General Kofi Annan attended the meeting yesterday and urged the parties to seize the opportunity to end the country's "long nightmare" of civil wars.    Sudan's First Vice President Ali Othman Taha told the Council his country now looked forward to reaping the dividends of peace with an international donor conference scheduled to be held in Norway. SPLM/A leader John Garang also stressed the need for international aid, noting that of 48 years since Sudan won independence 39 have witnessed war and urging donors to honour their pledges and release funds.    While stressing its strong support for the efforts of the Government and the SPLM/A to reach a comprehensive peace agreement, much of the Council's resolution was devoted to the conflict in Darfur, where about 1.7 million people have been displaced and Janjaweed militias stand accused of killing and raping thousands of villagers after rebel groups took up arms last year demanding a greater share of economic resources. It voiced "serious concern at the growing insecurity and violence in Darfur, the dire humanitarian situation, continued violations of human rights and repeated breaches of the ceasefire."    The Council demanded that Government and rebel forces and all other armed groups immediately cease all violence there and cooperate with international humanitarian relief and monitoring efforts, warning that the Council would "take appropriate action against any party failing to fulfil its commitments." It called on Member States to provide urgent and generous contributions to the humanitarian efforts underway in Sudan and neighbouring Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese from Darfur have sought refuge..    Secretary-General Kofi Annan deplored what he said was the worsening security situation in Darfur. "I regret to report that the security situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate, despite the ceasefire agreements signed earlier in N'Djamena [Chad] and now reinforced in Abuja," he told the Council. "Both the government and its militias, as well as the rebel groups, have breached agreements," he added. "This has made humanitarian work by the UN and our partners precarious and difficult, if not impossible.. Many innocent civilians continue to suffer as a result. This cannot be allowed to continue. The strongest warning to all the parties that are causing this suffering is essential. We cannot allow impunity," said Annan. "When - a sovereign state appears unable or unwilling to protect its own citizens, a grave responsibility falls on the international community, and specifically on this Council."    Annan said that the "terrible situation in Darfur has been brought about mainly by deliberate acts of violence against civilians, including widespread killing and rape. Because of the magnitude and intensity of the human suffering in that region [Darfur], the conflict remains a burning issue. Your draft resolution rightly reflects that concern."    NGOs urge Council to act firmly    International non-governmental and human rights organisations had urged the Council to use the meeting to ensure lasting peace in Sudan. "The primary objective of the Council at its Nairobi meeting should be to ensure that the government of Sudan and SPLM/A do not return to war," Refugees International (RI) said in a statement. "To that end, the successful conclusion of a peace agreement should be encouraged with all the vigor the Council can muster. Don't let peace slip away in southern Sudan. "The Council meeting in Nairobi may be the last chance to rescue a peace process that has begun to bog down," RI official, Larry Thompson, said. "It would be a human tragedy of major proportions if the ploughshares of peace were turned back into the weapons of war in southern Sudan. Peace in the largest country in Africa is worthy of the Council's highest priority."    The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) welcomed the meeting and urged the Council to use its influence to enable a comprehensive peace. "We re-affirm the principles which must underlie a just and enduring peace: unity in diversity, general reconciliation and forgiveness, human rights, justice, the right of self-determination, fundamental freedoms, pluralism, transparency, and addressing the root causes of the different conflicts in Sudan," the NSCC said in a statement.    Oxfam said: "As the eyes of the world are on the Council's unique meeting in Nairobi and trip to the Great Lakes region, now is the time to address forgotten African conflicts that have claimed millions of lives. We urge the Council to turn words into concrete actions to stop the ongoing violence and address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. They must also, together with the African Union, take early action in response to new crises before they spiral out of control," Oxfam's Regional Director Caroline Nursey said in a statement. It urged the Council to address the situation in northern Uganda as well.    Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement issued on Thursday said: "The impunity enjoyed by the Sudanese authorities in their ongoing atrocities in Darfur demonstrates why the near-final peace deal to end the country's North-South conflict must include accountability for human rights abuses."    "Unless they are held accountable for abuses in the south, the Sudanese authorities will continue to believe they can get away with murder in Darfur," Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for HRW said in the statement. "There's still time for Council members meeting in Nairobi to insist that the final peace agreement includes accountability for past abuses and protections against future ones."    HRW called for the prosecution of those implicated in grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Sudan and the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure full disclosure of human rights abuses in the armed conflicts that have ravaged Sudan since 1983. It urged international mediators to insist that both the government and rebels be held accountable for past abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.    On Tuesday, Amnesty International (AI), in a report titled: "Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur", accused foreign governments of allowing the supply of various types of arms into Sudan. "Foreign governments have enabled the government of Sudan to arm and deploy untrained and unaccountable militias that have deliberately and indiscriminately killed civilians in Darfur on a large scale - destroying homes, looting property and forcibly displacing the population," AI said.    "The tragedy of Darfur is that the international community, already heavily engaged in the North-South peace process in Sudan, took far too long to recognise the state-sponsored pattern of violence and displacement and failed to act earlier to protect the population," it added. "[AI] specifically requests member states of the Security Council to impose a mandatory arms embargo on Sudan to stop those supplies [from] reaching the parties to the conflict in Darfur, including the government forces, until effective safeguards are in place to protect civilians from grave human rights abuses," AI said..    18 November 2004    UNICEF deeply concerned over increased violence against children in Sudan's Darfur.    Reports of violence against Sudanese women and children in and around camps for civilians displaced by fighting in Darfur seem to be increasing rather than diminishing, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today. Executive Director Carol Bellamy said reports of aid agency monitors "strongly dispute claims that the situation is under control" in the vast western region where nearly 1.7 million people have been forced from their homes and Janjaweed militias stand accused of killing and raping thousands of villagers after rebel groups took up arms against the Government last year.    The stark assessment, which included new reports of rape and of children being separated from their parents, came as the UN Security Council held an extraordinary meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in an effort to end wars in both the south and west of Sudan and ensure the protection of civilians throughout Africa's largest country.    "The only party capable of securing the lives of these people is the Government itself," Ms. Bellamy said. "For as long as we continue to hear of the violence and insecurity faced by Sudanese children, we will continue to call for those responsible to be brought to account for their actions. "Children are not just being driven from the lands of their ancestors. They are witness to and victims of violent terror. They suffer deprivation and sickness in their bid to escape. And they seek asylum along with their families in camps in which their security cannot be guaranteed."    Aid agencies working in the troubled region have expressed dismay at the steadily increasing number of people arriving in the camps, as well as a surge in violent incidents in and around the camps themselves, UNICEF said. Children are said to have been loaded on to trucks and transported to a new camp without their parents, and injured in Government attempts to relocate camps. This forced relocation is in clear violation of international humanitarian law and existing agreements recently signed by the Government of Sudan, it added.    Armed militia are raping girls and women in Darfur as a tactic to terrorize and humiliate individuals as well as their entire families and communities, the UN agency said. To date there are few reports of attackers being punished. Many girls and women walk six to eight hours a day to get firewood for their basic survival - terrified of harassment and rape.    Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that while the attention of the media had focused heavily on the continuing humanitarian emergency in Darfur, the food outlook for southern Sudan in 2005 looked fairly bleak. It said the situation could worsen when peace is achieved between the north and south, since there would most likely be an influx of southerners returning to their homes. Visit the related web page
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