Darfur crisis - Generous public must keep giving

There has been an overwhelming response from the Irish public to provide aid for the humanitarian catastrophe which is being perpetrated on the people of Darfur in Western Sudan, and it is essential that the level of donations be maintained.

The disaster that is being inflicted on the people there because of internecine warring, has led to the United Nations describing it as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

In the past two months, the Irish public have reached into their more than generous pockets to subscribe an incredible €11 million to the various aid agencies which are trying to help the 1.5 million unfortunate people who have been displaced.

Despite the fact that that sum represents considerably more than the Irish Government’s aid to the entire of Sudan, the plight of the innocent people of Darfur cries out for even more.

The International Organisation on Migration has estimated that a fund in the region of at least €500 million is needed, and there is currently a vast shortfall in that target.

While the UN is airlifting food to remote communities in the region cut off by heavy rains, that aid is too late for the reported 50,000 people who have already been slaughtered.

It has given Sudan’s government until the end of the month to disarm pro-government Arab militiamen who have been carrying out attacks in Darfur.

Although the government has denied being in control of the Janjaweed and has promised to disarm it, there is little evidence that these armed Arab militiamen have been deterred from their vicious campaign of killing and raping. The UN Security Council has given the government until August 30 to disarm pro-government Janjaweed militias or face economic and diplomatic “measures”, rather than sanctions.

Whether such vague threats are effective in persuading the government to take action against the militiamen, remains to be seen.

While the wheels of international politics turn slowly, and talks sponsored by the African Union are due to begin today in Nigeria between the Sudanese government and two black African rebel groups, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced and face the risk of disease and starvation as the ethnic cleansing continues.

Many thousands are cut off from their villages and their fields and are unable to harvest their crops, while almost 200,000 are living in desperate conditions in camps on Chad’s side of the border.

The only practical hope that the victims in Darfur have is that international agencies can meet the seemingly impossible task of providing aid rather than depending on politics to relieve their hell on earth.

In the year and a half since the conflict erupted again politics has failed them and the aid agencies have not been financially supported enough by the international community to properly to meet the extraordinary conditions of human suffering they are confronted with.

Elsewhere in today’s Irish Examiner John O’Shea of GOAL, who in 27 years experience has seen countless catastrophes and natural disasters, describes Darfur as a “glimpse of hell”.

Consequently, it is crucial that the public continue to delve even deeper into pockets that have never refused a good cause.