A high-level donor meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday appealed for at least US $236 million to help an estimated 2.2 million victims of war and "forced ethnic displacement" in western Sudan's Darfur region, the United Nations reported. In total, about $126 million has been pledged for 2004, leaving a deficit of $110 million, it added.

Representatives of 36 states and institutions, including donor governments, Sudan, the Arab League, the African Union (AU) and NGOs, were present at the conference.

Addressing journalists midway through the meeting, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said this was the most important conference in recent history as the world's biggest humanitarian crisis was unfolding in Darfur.

Even with humanitarian aid, many lives would be lost, he said. "We are late in responding and the Janjawid [militia] attacks [are] so harsh that even under the best of circumstances [in terms of donor response] it will still be a humanitarian crisis."

A joint statement issued by the UN, US and EU added that hundreds of thousands of lives were at risk in Darfur "unless immediate protection and relief are provided".

Donors aim to feed, shelter up to a million IDPs in three months

Egeland said the conference participants had agreed to try to meet a series of key targets in Darfur over the next 90 days. These
included:

- feeding up to one million people across the region; - drilling new boreholes, and providing water pumps and tanks for camps for displaced people and host communities; - providing basic drugs and health care for 90 percent of the displaced; - providing basic materials to help displaced people and refugees construct temporary shelters; - providing seeds and tools to 78,000 families; and - deploying human rights and protection staff to the area.

Unanimous concern was expressed at the conference about the continuing attacks being perpetrated by the government-allied Janjawid militia.

Despite a ceasefire agreement signed by Khartoum and Darfur's two rebel groups in the Chadian capital, N'djamena, on 8 April, the Janjawid were still very active, with reports from the region indicating an increase in attacks and human rights violations, said Egeland.

He added that the rainy season would render roads impassable within just a few weeks, making the delivery of aid "a race against the clock".

New restrictions to access deplored

Andrew Natsios, the head of the US Agency for International Development, said too few NGOs were operating in Darfur to deliver sufficient quantities of aid. Coupled with this was the fact that whereas the Sudanese government had removed permit requirements for NGOs, it had imposed new restrictions on vehicles and air transport, thereby effectively limiting the movement of NGOs to and within Darfur.

James Morris, the executive director of the World Food Programme, commented that the government needed to remove administrative roadblocks like visas, permits and laborious checks on basic necessities such as medical supplies.

Bertrand Ramcharan, the UN acting high commissioner for human rights, raised the issue of protection. "Let me say it again: More than one million people are utterly vulnerable, living in a state of fear and without any means of protection... We know all this, we have no excuse for not knowing it: now is the time not to assess but to act," Ramcharan said in a statement.

He stressed that the humanitarian crisis was the direct consequence of a human rights crisis. "It is not impersonal, unswayable elements that are behind this tragedy: this tragedy is entirely man-made." It was the government's responsibility to resolve the crisis in line with its legal obligations, he added.

No rights mechanisms protect Darfurians - HCHR

A key concern was that there were "no human rights or protection mechanisms currently in place" to help Dafurians, he continued. He had requested his office to dispatch six human rights officers as soon as possible to Darfur to provide support to UN counterparts on monitoring ceasefire violations and protecting civilians, he said. The officers would also work closely with the AU mission to be sent to Darfur.

An "advance team" of 10 AU staff members had been deployed to Khartoum on Wednesday to prepare the logistics for a team of 90 ceasefire monitors, 60 of whom would be soldiers, an AU spokesman, Desmond Orjiako, told IRIN. The rest of the observer mission would go to Darfur as soon as "conditions" were ready, he added.

Amnesty International noted this week that nearly two months after the 8 April ceasefire, the monitors were not yet in place in Darfur. "It is not clear how effective 90 monitors - 60 military and 30 civilians - will be in an area the size of France where daily killings and rapes are still being reported," Amnesty said in a statement.

The Sudanese News Agency reported, however, that during meetings held on Wednesday and Thursday between the Sudanese government and the AU mission, the two sides had expressed "their confidence on achievement of a peaceful solution for Darfur".

Government expresses commitment to ceasefire

The Sudanese External Relations Ministry also issued a statement this week, affirming "the government's deep resolve" to abide by the N'djamena ceasefire accord, and stating that the government was keen to provide "more security, tranquillity and trust".

But ceasefire violations are being frequently reported. On 28 May, an Antonov aircraft and two helicopter gunships bombed a crowded market, killing at least 12 people in a village near Al-Fashir, Northern Darfur, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. "There have also been numerous credible reports of continuing attacks on civilians in displaced camps and settlements under government control," it added.

On 22 May, Janjawid killed at least 40 villagers and burned five villages, including Tabaldiyah and Abqarjeh, both south of Nyala, Southern Darfur, AI reported. They had reportedly arrived - some in army uniform - on horses and camels. "The government is not addressing the impunity of the Janjawid; it is integrating them into the army," HRW added.

The government has denied the attacks and accused the Darfur rebels of violating the ceasefire.