Sudan's civil war in the south may be ending, but the people of Darfur need urgent protection and aid, writes Ahmed Reda Bowing to international pressure, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir finally ordered "complete mobilisation" to disarm all illegal armed groups in the western region of Darfur, including the Arab militias who have been "harassing" African villagers. The statement came a day after the United States threatened to impose sanctions on Sudanese officials as a way of intensifying pressure to help ease a humanitarian crisis in Darfur. UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan plans to visit Sudan soon to press Khartoum to do more to help the people of its Darfur region caught up in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. International organisations have criticised the Sudanese government for failing to control the militias who have driven hundreds of thousands of Africans out of their villages into camps for displaced persons, or into exile in Chad. Faced with the threat of international sanctions, Sudan vowed to rein in pro-government militias in the conflict-ridden region of Darfur and stop fighting from spilling over into Chad. Violent clashes on the Chad-Sudan border between Arab militiamen allied to Khartoum and N'Djamena have revived fears that the 16-month conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region could spread. Darfur is a disaster zone. Since early last year, the government of Khartoum has been supporting Arab Janjaweed militias in a devastating scorched-earth campaign across the region, ethnically cleansing the area of its black African population, whom it claims is supporting a rebellion there. Through their mass slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians and the burning of food supplies, the Janjaweed have uprooted about 1.5 million people from their land. Some 200,000 have crossed into Chad and the Janjaweed have corralled the remainder into concentration camps within Sudan. There, because of government obstacles to international relief efforts and a shortage of aid, the internally displaced are facing death by starvation and disease. Many obstacles are delaying effective aid deliveries: poor roads, insecurity from the ongoing fighting, the Sudanese government's long delays in granting entry of humanitarian workers and emergency food and medicines and the inability of some aid organisations to deliver the goods. That inability has bewildered the exhausted relief workers in Darfur and has drawn furious reactions from donors, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In the Darfur region, surveys are already indicating high levels of severe malnutrition among children, including one study by Doctors Without Borders that found more than 21 per cent of children under five were suffering from acute malnutrition, and roughly five per cent of children under five in families surveyed had died in the past three months. The region is also plagued with severe shortage in water supplies. Lack of water and food means that many more Darfurians will die. This week Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, said that even if relief efforts were accelerated, more than 300,000 forced from their homes would die of starvation and disease. If Sudan keeps blocking aid or foreign governments hesitate, Natsios said, the "death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching one million people." With few hospitals working, many people lack access to healthcare and cannot get treatment for diseases such as malaria, measles, pneumonia and cholera. Lack of reproductive healthcare is also a huge concern, adding to maternal and child mortality. Urgent measures to address the physical and psychological needs of women, many of whom have reportedly been raped, are vital. Assessments carried out by experts from the World Health Organisation's Regional Centre for Environmental Health Activities in Amman show that most water sources are under-chlorinated, household containers are contaminated, latrines are inadequate and environmental conditions are anything but satisfactory. It is estimated that only 12 per cent of the potable water needed is currently available. Such poor conditions have led to a rise in mortality, with instances of daily under-five mortality rates of 6.8 per 10,000. The main causes of death are acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, and malnutrition. Malnutrition, conflict and the deaths of civilians are not new to Sudan. The troubles go back decades, beginning soon after independence in 1956 when black Christian southerners demanded autonomy from the central government dominated by lighter-skinned Arab Muslims. Sudan has been embroiled in civil war for 36 of the last 48 years. Now, some 70 per cent of the government's budget goes to fight the war, according to Western diplomats. The tensions in Darfur have existed for years, partly as a result of the slow expansion of desert in the Sahel region which has left less land for cattle to graze and less arable soil for farmers. That has prompted the Janjaweed and other nomads to look for ways to secure more land; the war against the rebels who come from three African farming tribes in Darfur created that opportunity. The disaster in Darfur tarnished the picture of the Sudanese government in the eyes of the world despite the applause gained because of the recent agreement with the southern rebels. The rising death toll, however, could soon evoke memories of the tragedy in Rwanda a decade ago when both the US and the UN Security Council found excuses to stand aside while 800,000 died. That shameful failure must not be repeated. The chances of immediate intervention in Darfur appear slim. As in Rwanda, much can be traced to variously motivated refusals to use the word "genocide", substituting in its place the term "ethnic cleansing". As Samantha Power, author of a history of genocide, has suggested, "ethnic cleansing" is ultimately "a euphemistic halfway house", a reflection of indecision. But the root cause of this humanitarian crisis is the Sudanese government's campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against civilians of three ethnic groups. Only by addressing the human rights crisis can donor governments hope to solve the humanitarian disaster, Human Rights Watch said. Several aid organisations and politicians say the Security Council has hesitated for months in responding to the Darfur crisis. In recent weeks, as some response became inevitable, Darfur occasioned only a generic expression of "grave concern". But while concern within the Security Council is growing, there is no clear movement towards the only action that will get relief in: humanitarian intervention. Such intervention must provide military protection to ensure the safe movement of emergency humanitarian food, medical supplies and personnel. It must entail militarily securing the concentration camps that are now packed with terribly vulnerable and traumatised populations. According to Western analysts, more pressure could help pacify Darfur. The first priority is to get aid to the displaced to prevent them from starving. But there also needs to be a proper cease-fire, monitored by the United Nations' blue helmets. Khartoum could be rewarded with aid if it reins in its militia and addresses the grievances of the rebels there. Sanctions could be applied if it does not. Some UN officials accuse the government of turning a blind eye to a scorched- earth campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur and failing to fulfil pledges to disarm the militias and ensure aid workers have access to those in need. Washington-based Africa Action this week announced it was circulating a petition urging US Secretary of State Colin Powell to declare the situation a "genocide". The national grassroots group said it hoped to collect more than 10,000 signatures within two weeks. According to Powell, the Bush administration is considering a declaration that the repression of African peoples in Darfur by the ethnic Arab Janjaweed is genocide. Were it so, the US could be under a legal obligation via the 1948 Genocide Convention to intervene in the country with military force; an option that has been urged for several weeks by a number of human rights and activist groups. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights decision to send a fact-finding mission to Darfur marks an important step forward in finding solutions to end the crisis that has displaced over a million people. The fact finding mission to investigate massive human rights violations was announced in the African Commission's "Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in Darfur, Sudan", issued this month, clearly demonstrating the commission's concern, as Africa's paramount human rights body, over the deteriorating situation in Darfur. A statement said the mission to Darfur from the African Commission would play a vital role in helping to stop the impunity and the violence that have been raging in Darfur since last year. It is vital human rights observers are granted immediate and open access and all is done to ensure the urgent relief and protection of civilians. The situation is still vague in Darfur despite promises by the government in Khartoum to disarm militias. The coming weeks will witness a severe deterioration in the humanitarian situation if aid is not delivered to refugees and population inside Darfur. The degree of governmental commitment towards ending the dilemma is yet to be seen and the international community is still dragging its feet. Will it be another Rwanda or will the world maximise efforts to prevent the dark picture from getting even darker?
