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Sudan: Relief Agency Pulls Out of Darfur Region

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
December 21, 2004
Posted to the web December 21, 2004
Nairobi
The British charity, Save the Children (SC UK), has discontinued its
humanitarian operations in the western Sudanese region of Darfur following the
deaths of four staff members in two separate incidents over the past two
months.
"We are devastated that we are unable to continue to offer health care,
nutritional support, child protection and education to the approximately
250,000 children and family members served by our current programmes in North
and South Darfur," Mike Aaronson, director-general of SC UK, said in a press
statement on Tuesday.
"We just cannot continue to expose our staff to the unacceptable risks they
face as they go about their humanitarian duties in Darfur," he added.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, Jan Pronk,
said he regretted that SC UK "had to take the difficult decision to terminate
its operations in Darfur".
Condemning acts of violence targeting humanitarian workers, in a statement
issued on Tuesday, Pronk urged all parties to abide by the principles of
international humanitarian law and the terms of the ceasefire Agreement of 8
April 2004 and the Abuja Protocols of 9 November 2004 on security and
humanitarian Issues.
Two SC UK employees, both Sudanese were killed on 13 December, when the convoy
of humanitarian vehicles in which they were travelling came under fire in South
Darfur.
On 10 October, a landmine in North Darfur killed two other SC UK workers - a
British programme manager and a Sudanese water engineer - while their driver
was seriously injured.
The African Union (AU) blamed rebel forces for both incidents.
Meanwhile, one of the helicopters used by the AU monitoring team was hit by
bullets while flying in the Labardo area of South Darfur on Sunday, Ki Doulaye,
an official in the AU's directorate of peace and security, told IRIN.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, which occurred in a government-controlled
area, Doulaye said. He added that AU monitoring operations had not been
interrupted by the shooting incident.
"Our team is continuing with its monitoring work - we have not suspended
anything," Doulaye told IRIN by telephone from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian
capital, where the AU has its headquarters.
The government was carrying out an "operation" in Labardo, near Nyala, the main
town in South Darfur, when the AU helicopter came under fire, Doulaye said. The
AU was unable to confirm the identity of the group responsible for the gunfire.
The war in Darfur pits the Sudanese government troops and militias allegedly
allied to the government against rebels fighting to end what they have called
marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state.
The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and sent another
200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad. The UN has described the situation
in Darfur as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

   

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