7 July 2004
Annan briefs Council via satellite from Nairobi
Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution as soon as possible to help bring an end to the deadly violence and ethnic displacement wracking Sudan's Darfur region, while the top United Nations humanitarian official described the relief effort as "a logistical nightmare."
In a private briefing by satellite link from Nairobi, Kenya, where he is continuing the African leg of an official trip, Mr. Annan informed the Council about what he observed during his visit last week to Sudan and neighbouring Chad.
He described the situation in Chad as "totally intolerable," according to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who accompanied Mr. Annan to Sudan and Chad, and briefed the Council separately in New York today.
The Secretary-General told the Council's 15 members that he wants a resolution as soon as possible - and with as much as concrete detail as possible - to help ensure that armed, government-allied Janjaweed militias stop attacking villages and killing and raping civilians, Mr. Egeland told reporters.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator also warned of a potentially massive death toll if Khartoum does not take steps to end the fighting with two rebel groups and to disarm and demobilize the mainly Arab militias.
"It is so vulnerable now that if there is an outbreak of renewed fighting, the whole programme of our humanitarian lifeline will fold immediately, and hundreds of thousands of people may die," he said.
Before Mr. Annan departed Sudan on Saturday, the Government and the UN issued a joint communiqué in which Khartoum pledged to undertake a series of measures, including disarming the militias, bringing the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice and removing any obstacles to humanitarian access.
For months UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have complained of restrictions hampering their attempts to bring relief to Darfur's internally displaced, who are now estimated to have swelled in number to 1.2 million. Between 150,000 and 200,000 refugees have fled to Chad and at least 800,000 other people need emergency food aid.
Welcoming the promised removal of those obstacles, Mr. Egeland said that humanitarian workers still need better security and more funding to do their work. UN agencies and NGOs have reported this week that military officials have searched some aid workers and looted their possessions.
Funding also presents a problem. UN agencies have received less than $140 million of the $350 million they say is the minimum needed to provide food rations, clean water, sanitation and other relief supplies to 2 million people until at least the end of this year. Trucks, helicopters and airplanes to transport food are also required.
"It is a logistical nightmare for us to help them [and] it would be ironic now, when we have access finally, that we would be unable to save lives because we only have 40 per cent of what we've asked for," Mr. Egeland said.
Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies say the depletion of firewood around the dozens of camps for internally displaced people in Darfur is forcing women to travel further away from the relative safety of the camps to collect wood for cooking. Many women say they are reluctant to travel far because of the threat of rapes and other violent assaults by the Janjaweed.
UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said humanitarian agencies have also begun reporting outbreaks of fighting in north Darfur between the government troops and the militias.
At the Abu Shouk camp in north Darfur, aid workers are now providing relief to the several thousand people who were relocated from another camp last week without warning by Sudanese authorities.
In a separate development, Ms. Okabe said Mr. Annan met with UN staff in Nairobi today and is also scheduled to hold talks with Kenyan President Mwai Kabaki.
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