Annan urges funding for larger force to end Darfur bloodshed

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged donors yesterday to fund a bigger African force to help end bloodshed in Darfur, where experts say hundreds are still dying daily nine months after the mission first deployed.

Mr Annan warned rich nations at a pledging conference in neighbouring Ethiopia that they would end up having to finance an “epic relief effort” if more violence made food even scarcer in the vast western region of Sudan, Africa’s largest country.

“We are running a race against time. The rainy season and the ‘hunger gap’ are approaching fast, making our relief operations more difficult,” Annan said in a speech at African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa. “If violence and fear prevent the people of Darfur from planting and growing crops next year, then millions will have to be sustained by an epic relief effort which will stretch international capacity to the maximum.”