Humanitarian access blocked in Darfur

Monday January 12th, 2004.

NAIROBI, Jan 12, 2004 (IRIN) -- Humanitarian needs in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur are not being met primarily due to insecurity, according to humanitarian sources.

"Only 15 percent of people are in areas that are accessible by the UN," said Ben Parker, the spokesman for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan. "And even access to these continues to be hampered by difficulties obtaining travel permits."

The Sudanese government said in a recent statement that "assistance to the needy is being rendered satisfactorily" in Darfur, but humanitarian workers say they are unable to operate.

In northern and western Darfur, insecurity is confining agencies to the two towns of Al-Fashir and Junaynah, while from southern Darfur they can access only limited areas beyond Nyala.

The prolific supply of small arms in the region, increased banditry and militia activity had led to a "complete breakdown in law and order", commented one source.

"We're in suspense. We're stuck and we're frustrated. We have supplies, we have funding and staff, we have made arrangements with local partners, but we cannot move because it's too dangerous," said Parker. "At the same time the needs are increasing."

Meanwhile, in Al-Fashir and Nyala, the UN Children's Fund has reported that a growing number of displaced children are working in the markets as domestic labour, and possibly as prostitutes or beggars. Some cases of rape by soldiers have also been reported.

Fighting between the army and Arab militias on one side and Darfur's two main rebel groups on the other has escalated since the breakdown of peace talks in December. Militia attacks on villages have increased, burning them to the ground as well as killing, raping and kidnapping villagers.

The Sudanese government has said it is "firm on fully bearing its responsibilities of protecting the lives and property of its citizens and relief workers in Darfur". But observers say it has so far failed to do so.

About 700,000 farmers and their families have been pushed off their land since February by militias, who come from the region's nomadic tribes. Of these, 95,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad - about 1,000 per day last month - but even there they are frequently attacked by militias.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Chadian authorities say they are continuing to search for inland sites to relocate the refugees away from the insecure border, in the hope of deterring the frequent incursions.

In a separate development, Tom Vraalsen, the UN's Special Envoy for Sudan, is currently in Chad to advocate for a resumption of peace talks
- which broke down in December amid recriminations on both sides - and a humanitarian ceasefire.

Both rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, have said that the presence of international monitors - other than Chad which has been brokering them to date - is a precondition to ceasefire negotiations.