IF world leaders continue to neglect the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, violence there could reignite 21 years of civil war and spread, the leader of Scotland's largest international aid charity warned last night.
"It is staggering that the international community has not been able to provide the personnel or logistical support that is vital to handle the vast insecurity in the region," said Paul Chitnis, chief executive of the Scottish Catholic International
Aid Fund. "They are not giving Darfur the priority it needs in order to bring an end to this crisis. Already it is a situation of too little, too late."
Chitnis' comments come after a report from the United Nations found that violence targeting civilians in Darfur continues at alarming levels, despite numerous resolutions, millions in aid money and four years of UN efforts to end it.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, has even said the situation is worse today than when it first began. SCIAF has taken a major step in promoting its work in the country – by establishing its first overseas office there, in the town of Juba, on the White Nile south of Darfur.
Chitnis said: "It is important to see that what is going on in Darfur is not just local. The problems in Darfur are already having an impact on its neighbours, and there is a real fear the crisis there will disrupt the peace agreement in southern Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement is, at best, fragile."
Last week, the World Food Programme announced that it would be forced to cut down monthly rations in Darfur by nearly half because attacks on aid workers and trucks were preventing them from delivering food relief. Oxfam has also complained that its staff had been assaulted, abducted, robbed and even killed while working there.
Before violence in Darfur hit the headlines, Sudan was embroiled in a 21-year civil war between the largely Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south, which claimed the lives of 1.5 million people.
In 2005 both parties involved in the conflict, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The shaky resolution hinges on a forthcoming referendum that could determine southern Sudan's independence.
"With the different ethnic, geographic and religious aspects in place it is a complex environment to be working in," said Deborah Livingstone, Africa programmes manager for SCIAF.
