Situation worsens in war-ravaged Sudan, says senior EU aid worker

By David Cronin

Date: 27/05/04

A HELLISH picture of destruction and suffering in Sudan's war-torn province of Darfur has been described by a senior aid worker with the European Commission's humanitarian office (ECHO).

"There are scores and scores of villages burnt to the ground and thousands of internally displaced people, struggling to meet their basic requirements in a very harsh environment," said Peter Holdsworth. "There are hundreds of sick children. And we spoke to many women who have been raped, including a nine-year-old girl who was gang-raped ten days ago."

Holdsworth spent a month in Darfur before returning to ECHO's office in Nairobi this week. A veteran of many disasters, he said the situation in the western Sudanese region is the most distressing he has witnessed since the genocide in Rwanda ten years ago.

War broke out in Darfur early last year when two guerilla groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, attacked military installations. As a result of the fighting, up to one million people have been uprooted. The problems have been exacerbated by the deliberate targeting of food stores and water supplies by government-linked forces.

"There is a definite famine looming," Holdsworth said. "The situation will get worse in the next 18 months simply because the people have no protection. Without protection and security, they won't go and farm land and they won't have food.

"We need a major humanitarian operation but the capacity is not there. I would say that the emergency operation is only operating at 10% of what is needed."

Accompanied by UN workers, Holdsworth visited southern and western Darfur, areas that aid teams have been hindered from accessing since the crisis began.

To gain such access, he had to obtain special permits from the authorities. While he was in the region, a group from the US Agency for International Development was stuck in Khartoum, waiting for their entry permits to be granted.

"It [the granting of authorizations] seems to be totally at the whim of the bureaucracy and government. The last I heard is that there are still a couple of hundred visas waiting to be authorized."

Such delays, he added, are hampering aid agencies from carrying out the assessments needed for launching humanitarian operations. "The logistics of the operation are supremely difficult. The roads are very difficult and there are a limited number of airfields. If one hasn't got capacity on the ground, it is very difficult to carry out an operation and the reason why there isn't capacity on the ground is because it is very difficult to get visas."

Holdsworth's visit was part of ECHO's planning for delivery of a 10 million aid package for Darfur's population.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/echo/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/echo/index_en.htm

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