SPECIAL ENVOY SEEKS AID FOR SUDANESE REFUGEES

SPECIAL ENVOY SEEKS AID FOR SUDANESE REFUGEES

GENEVA, 15 January (OCHA) -- After completing a mission to Chad, Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs for Sudan, today urged a group of donors in Geneva to provide $4.3 million to cover the needs of Sudanese refugees on the Chadian border over the next three months.  Ambassador Vraalsen made this emergency request to the Humanitarian Liaison Working Group, comprising 25 countries that regularly support the United Nations and non-governmental organizations in responding to emergencies.

“The humanitarian situation in Darfur is very serious.  I urge donors to quickly and generously respond to agencies’ requests for financial support.  Without a rapid response, the conditions of these refugees will deteriorate rapidly”, Mr. Vraalsen said.

Last month, 30,000 refugees streamed out of Sudan’s Darfur province, where civilians were being killed or raped, their villages burned, and their possessions looted by armed militias.  This outflow brought to roughly 90,000 the total number of refugees who had fled from Darfur to Chad since fighting intensified in February 2003.  The refugees have been taking shelter along a 600 kilometre stretch of remote, insecure borderland between Chad and the Sudanese frontier.

Until recently, the refugees have been dependent upon the generosity of the local populations and what assistance the Government of Chad could provide.  The United Nations has already responded.  As the border region where refugees stay may soon be cut off by the rainy season, the World Food Programme (WFP) is planning to pre-position some 3,500 tonnes of food in four areas away from the border.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun a programme to relocate the roughly 90,000 refugees to an area some

50 to 70 kilometres farther from the border.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) seeks support to provide education services.  The UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) also seek support for providing basic health support to the refugees, including vaccination.  A programme by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide refugees with seeds and tool kits so that they can start planting as soon as the rain comes.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA NY, tel.:  917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.:  41 22 917 2653, mobile:  41(0) 79 472 4570.

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