Global Policy Forum

By Kavita Menon

UN officials say the world body has raised less than a third of what it needs to fully implement a humanitarian aid effort for more than 1 million Sudanese displaced by an alleged campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the western Darfur region. Aid workers have described their attempts to provide food, medical care, and shelter to those who have fled their villages as a "race against time." The emergency threatens to grow more acute in the coming weeks, when the start of heavy seasonal rains will make huge swaths of the region impassable or difficult to navigate.

"The issue is, now that the rainy season starts, how are we going to do it?" asked Laura Melo, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program who is based in Nairobi. Melo said there are not enough people on the ground to deliver aid and not enough aid to deliver. "We are far, far from being totally funded," Melo said, adding that the needs go well beyond food, and include such items as blankets and plastic sheeting. Once the rains begin, supplies will have to be airlifted in, further driving up costs. With rain also come additional health risks, including the spread of cholera and meningitis, according to aid workers. Of the $141 million the UN estimates it needs to assist people in the Darfur region, it had raised $38 million by the end of last week.

Conflict escalated in Darfur last year when the Sudanese government responded to an armed rebellion by two local insurgent groups by launching a combination of air raids and ground attacks, assisted by a proxy militia known as the Janjaweed. The UN's acting high commissioner for human rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, who recently concluded a fact-finding mission to Darfur, said the tactics amounted to a "scorched-earth campaign" in which whole villages have been destroyed and civilians from the Zaghawa, Fur, and Masaalit ethnic groups are the main victims.

Sudan denies that it is responsible for committing or allowing human rights abuses, but humanitarian groups say the government has frustrated attempts by outside observers to investigate the allegations. "The government of Sudan worked very hard to limit access to Darfur, by keeping out the press, by keeping out human rights monitors, and by limiting where humanitarian workers could go," said Ken Bacon, executive director of Refugees International, a Washington, D.C., group. "This is a government that understands the power of the media, that understands the power of images."

"The loudest emergencies get the most money," said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Things that are more visible in the media are the ones that get the most funding." If the money does not come through in time, some programs simply will not be implemented, bringing "absolutely devastating consequences," said Toby Lanzer, who heads OCHA's emergency appeals process and is based in Geneva. Lanzer said that the UN agencies can make plans based on pledges, but not on projections. "We also live in world where we have accountants," he said.

Meanwhile, the UN and aid agencies say they are seeing signs of an increase in malnutrition and in crude mortality rates among the displaced population. There are no comprehensive estimates because aid workers are still unable to reach the majority of those displaced by the conflict. Aid efforts have been constrained by security problems. Although the government signed a cease-fire with Darfur rebels April 8, the UN reports ongoing violence by Janjaweed fighters, who also have made cross-border raids into Chad, where an additional 100,000 refugees are living.

Andrew Natsios, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said the United States, which is the leading donor to the aid effort in Darfur, would donate additional food aid and funding as access and security improve. "This is our first priority," Natsios said of the agency, in a telephone interview. "This is the most urgent crisis in the world right now."