Darfur Update - March 08
KEY FACTS
WJR, through its partner organisation, works with elderly IDPs around Geneina town in Western Darfur, where hundreds of newly displaced people continue to trickly into IDP camps
WJRis also, through another partner organisation, working to increase the protection and well being of Darfuri refugee women and girls
The scale of violence in Darfur is reaching similar levels as in 2004. The first months of 2008 have seen a severe deterioration in the security situation as fighting intensified, particularly around el-Geneina in West Darfur. The UN has advised INGOs to keep non essential staff out of the town. Unrest in a number of IDP (internally displaced people) camps has also resulted in decreasing access to the camps and the IDP population. While programming does continue, monitoring of said programming and any planned development are currently on hold until the security situation improves.
The recent increase in rebel fighting in Chad has similarly affected WJR programming for Darfuri refugees. Both of WJR’s implementing partner agencies have seen a decrease in access to camps (on both sides of the Chad/Darfur border), and both have had staff involved in car jackings whilst moving around the region.
Unrest in a number of IDP camps has also resulted in decreasing access to the camps and the IDP population.
It is expected that the EUFOR (EU Force) deployment in Chad will, in the longer term, have a positive affect on the border region (where WJR’s programming is carried out) but, in the shorter term, troubles will increase as rebels flee EUFOR occupied areas. The border area around Bahai is expected to be one of the last areas to see a EUFOR presence.
The UNAMID forces are under resourced as they begin to deploy in Darfur. The international arena has been slow to respond to requests for troops and equipment. The force, planned to reach 26,000, currently stands at 9,000 troops. It replaces the AU (African Union) force of 7,000 to try and end five years of violence, in which period around 200,000 have been killed and more than two million have been made homeless.
Southern Sudan, which ended its own civil war with Khartoum in 2005, is also in danger of returning to bloodshed as tensions in the oil-rich border area look set to escalate. Clashes between South Sudan’s armed forces and a tribe of Nomads are the result of a failure to reach political agreement about the Abyei oil region. Without agreement there is a real danger of a return to war.
