Convoys of food and material supplies by Norwegian Church Aid have been raided for the second time in Darfur, as the security situation there shows signs of deterioration.
The convoy was held at gunpoint in an ambush by criminal gangs, an increasingly regular occurrence in Sudan’s unstable western province.
“We are extremely thankful to know that our colleagues are safe and well. But the growing trend of ambush, both of clearly marked aid vehicles and hired trucks, is frightening,” said Bjørg Mide, Director of the NCA/ACT/Caritas relief programme, which currently operates in 35 different locations across the region.
He added: “Hundreds of thousands of people rely entirely on the life-saving services we provide in Darfur. We provide these people with services that they actually have a right to receive – but we need relatively secure conditions to be able to deliver.”
Mr Mide suspects a criminal rather than political motive behind the growing number of ambushes, which involve heavily armed men on horses or camels: “It is hard to know what the real motivation behind these raids, but we are certain that the two attacks to which we have been subjected over the last few weeks were nothing more than pure banditry.”
He also said that a disarmament process was necessary for any real chance at peace: “A very large number of small arms are in circulation in Darfur, that is the legacy of the conflict here, and they are now in the hands of many different groups. If peace is to be given a real chance here, these groups must be disarmed.”
The Darfur peace process has been resumed in Abuja, but despite this most refugees will be forced to remain in refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.
“The people I have spoken to repeat one point over and over again: security – they need security before they can go home. Darfur is simply not safe enough for them to do this as the situation stands. Now they have missed yet another harvest, and this means that they will be dependent upon our assistance for at least one more full year.
“We hope that the peace process in Abuja will result in an agreement – but even if this happens, there is no guarantee that the people will return home in large quantities as a result,” says Mide.
According to UN estimates around two million people have been forced to flee their homes since 2003 in a conflict that has cost, according to the UN, the lives of around 180,000 people in the last two years.
Norwegian Church Aid has been working closely with UN organisations and the African Union, Africa’s answer to the European Union aimed at promoting peace and security. Mr Mide said, however, that more needed to be done to provide the internally dispossessed with the security they need: “We can see that the presence of the AU in Labado has had a positive effect on what was initially an extremely tense security situation.
But there are still too few AU soldiers stationed, the logistics are poor, there are too few resources available. Darfur is a region the size of France, and more observers and soldiers – with extended mandates – are absolutely crucial,” he urged.
Norwegian Church Aid is also currently operating in 3 different refugee camps in Chad, which borders western Sudan.
Maria Mackay
Christian Today Correspondant