THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN DARFUR
Did you know?
3.5 million Darfurians currently depend on international aid for essentials like food, water and medical care. Another 300,000 - 500,000 people are altogether out of the reach of essential provisions - a situation the UN calls ‘the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.’
Attacks on civilians
Burning village Um Zeifa, Darfur after a Janjaweed attack
Photo by Brian Steidle; taken from the www.USHMM.org website.
Sudanese soldiers and Janjaweed militias target civilian populations in their ‘slash and burn’ attacks on Darfuri villages. Their general pattern involves government helicopters bombing from above, and Janjaweed militias attacking on horseback or camel from below. Captured men are killed, while women and children as young as 8 years old are gang raped and mutilated. Survivors flee to camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Sudan or for refugees in neighbouring Chad, often without knowing the fate of their families, friends and loved ones. In the wake of attacks, villages are burnt to the ground and items of value are looted, so that nothing remains for those who dare return.
Conditions in the camps
Women in aid camp. Photo courtesy of Physicans for Human Rights (PHR).
Refugee and IDP camps are make-shift settlements, where food and essential resources are scarce, and one’s personal safety is not ensured. Residents make shelters out of garbage, survive on food rations below the UN’s minimum daily standard, and when humanitarian aid supply routes are obstructed or deliveries are looted they must make do without food and medical supplies. Women and children leaving in search of essential firewood and water are routinely victimized and raped, and in the camps their attackers walk amongst them with freedom and impunity. IDPs and refugees cannot return home, though they would like to, because their home villages are less safe than the camps. Generally, the longer displaced people are away from home, the less likely it is they they will ever return.
Security challenges for aid organizations
Women carrying water in a humanitarian aid camp.
Photo by Brian Steidle; taken from the www.USHMM.org website.
Several humanitarian organizations have been forced to down size or withdraw from Darfur, despite the essential nature of their work. Humanitarian workers and their operations are regularly targeted in militia and government attacks. More than 300,000 civilians are currently without access to aid in Darfur, either because it’s too dangerous for humanitarian agencies to operate, or because supply routes are cut off. In April 2007, the UN warned that the aid effort was in danger of full collapse, which would leave millions of people without essential supplies.
Finding more information on the humanitarian crisis
Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Menawashi, Darfur, Sudan.
Photo by Brian Steidle; taken from the www.USHMM.org website.
For more information on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, see the following sites of Canadian aid organizations who work on the ground in Darfur, and with Darfuri refugees in neighbouring Chad.
Oxfam Canada: www.Oxfam.ca
Warchild Canada: www.Warchild.ca
Action Against Hunger: www.Actioncontrelafaim.ca
World Vision Canada: www.WorldVision.ca
PLAN Canada (formerly Foster Parents Plan): www.PlanCanada.ca
Save the Children: www.SavetheChildren.ca
Doctors Without Borders: www.msf.ca
