24 April 2008
Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur Worsening, U.S. Envoy Says
U.N.-AU peacekeeping mission will not reach full strength until 2009
Washington -- The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan is worsening and the number of killed and displaced people continues to grow, reflecting an atmosphere of continuing violence, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
"The conflict that has created all of this humanitarian suffering has mutated from the Sudanese government's counterinsurgency campaign against new active rebel groups in Darfur in 2003, which targeted innocent Darfurians with unconscionable savagery, to a situation that is complicated by shifting alliances, growing ambitions, tribal conflicts and regional meddling," says Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan.
"The government of Sudan, the Arab militias, and rebel leaders all have blood on their hands," he said. "Make no mistake: this 'genocide in slow motion' continues, casualties mount, and more must be done to alleviate the terrible humanitarian suffering and bring sustainable stability and peace to this region brutalized and stained with the blood of innocent people."
Williamson testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee April 23 that since 2003 an estimated 200,000 people have died in Darfur as a result of the conflict and some 2.5 million people have been displaced inside Darfur or into neighboring Chad.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened an oversight hearing April 23 to determine what progress has been made since the United Nations and African Union assumed joint control of peacekeeping December 31, 2007, and to evaluate the U.S. response.
Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said that violence and banditry are still common. "Last week, the World Food Programme announced that it is going to have to cut rations for people in Darfur in half because so many of its trucks are being hijacked that it cannot maintain supply lines," Biden said.
Katherine Almquist, assistant administrator for Africa in the U.S. Agency for International Development, told the senators that after three years into the six-year road map known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, "comprehensive peace in Sudan remains elusive."
Sudan is USAID's largest program in Africa and among the largest in the world, she said. It remains the United States' top foreign policy priority in Africa, and Darfur is the focus of the largest international humanitarian operation in the world.
"This devastating conflict has left 2.5 million people internally displaced and another 250,000 refugees in Chad," she said. "Since 2004, USAID has spent an average of $750 million annually in assistance to Sudan, including a total of $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance in Darfur and eastern Chad [over the same period]."
John Holmes, under-secretary-general for U.N. humanitarian affairs, told the U.N. Security Council April 22 in a special briefing that he was "saddened and angry" to inform the council that the situation inside Darfur had only worsened in the past 12 months. He advised the Security Council that the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force would not reach full strength -- 26,000 peacekeepers and police officers -- until 2009.
He said that to date only 9,000 peacekeepers have been sent into the Darfur region to replace a 7,000-strong African Union force.
In addition, the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force representative, Rodolphe Adada, said the force lacks five critical elements to become fully operational -- attack helicopters, surveillance aircraft, transport helicopters, military engineers and logistical support.
Williamson said that the government-supported Janjaweed militias that are responsible for most of the attacks on civilians have not been disarmed or controlled, as required in the Darfur Peace Agreement. But he noted that these were not the only groups responsible for violence and death in the region.
The deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission would be a significant step toward improved security in Darfur, Williamson said. "But unfortunately, since the transition from the African Union Mission in Sudan to the AU-U.N. peacekeeping operation, UNAMID, there has been little change on the ground," he said.
Almquist said that despite initial cooperation, the Sudanese government has created new impediments that further hamper humanitarian programs.
Williamson said the United States has contributed significant funding for peacekeeping, in addition to funding 25 percent of these missions through its peacekeeping dues to the United Nations. The United States contributed more than $450 million to construct and maintain 34 base camps in Darfur for peacekeepers. In addition, the United States has committed more than $100 million to bolster African nations’ will to step forward and provide peacekeepers for Darfur, he said.
