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U.S. President Barack Obama is urging Sudan's government to let recently expelled humanitarian aid groups return to the country. President Obama is sending an envoy to Khartoum this week to make his case.
"We have an immediate crisis prompted by the Khartoum government's expulsion of non-governmental organizations that are providing aid to displaced persons inside of Sudan. We have to figure out a mechanism to get those NGO's back in place, to reverse that decision," President Obama said.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on Friday, March 6 to determine a course of action in response to the unraveling humanitarian disaster in Sudan. The UNSC deadlocked, however, and was unable to reach a consensus that all parties could agree to.
Thirteen international aid organizations including the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, Oxfam and CARE, were expelled after the arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashri was issued by the International Criminal Court on March 4.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the departure of these organizations would leave 1.1 million people without food, 1.5 million without medical care and more than one million without drinking water.
The Humanitarian Aid Commissioner of Sudan said that Sudanese government, local groups and those organizations allowed to stay would be able to fill the gap created by the expulsions. But diplomats and officials disputed the idea that Sudan would be able to fill the gap, noting that agencies being shut down deliver approximately 40 percent of the aid in Darfur.
Although the UNSC has not yet been able to reach a consensus, the weight and urgency of the issue was noted by British Ambassador John Sawyers: "There was a lot of concern around the council table about this decision; about the impact it was going to have on ordinary people in Sudan, and about the inability of any organization--the UN, Sudanese organizations or regional organizations--to fill the gaping hole left by the expulsion of these NGOs."
Sign the IRC's petition to keep humanitarian aid in Sudan.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) feared that the loss of aid within Darfur could prompt a mass exodus of refugees into neighboring countries, such as Chad, already under pressure from thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). "Our experience shows that when vulnerable populations are unable to get the help they need, they go elsewhere in search of protection and assistance," UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.
The conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan began in February 2003 when two loosely allied rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, launched an uprising against the government of Sudan. Displaced by conflict, an estimated 1.8 million people live in camps inside Sudan, with another 250,000 in refugee camps across the border in Chad. More than half of those displaced are under age 18, according to UNICEF, and between 70 and 80 percent of the camp population are women and children.
Learn more about the history of the conflict at Reuters AlertNet.
Too Little for Too Few: Meeting the Needs of Youth in Darfur Education in Darfur: A Critical Component of Humanitarian Response Finding Trees in the Desert: Firewood Collection and Alternatives in Darfur Education during Humanitarian Emergencies: The Situation of Displaced Children in Youth in Darfur, Sudan
