EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR JAN EGELAND CONCLUDES TRIP TO SUDAN;

SAYS 2005 COUNTRY’S ‘MAKE OR BREAK YEAR’

 

KHARTOUM, 8 March (OCHA) -- United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland today completed a four-day tour of the Sudan, including visits to return to areas in South Sudan, internally displaced persons camps and conflict-affected locations in Darfur and meetings with authorities in Khartoum.

“2005 is a make-or-break year for Sudan”, said Mr. Egeland.  “We’ve waited for a whole generation to get this peace agreement, ending one of the bloodiest wars of our time”, he noted, but warned that an historic opportunity to consolidate peace in the Sudan could be lost due to lack of funding.

“I was shocked to find that the South has only received in hand 5 per cent of what it needs to implement the Work Plan for Sudan.  There is a disturbing discrepancy between what the world promised it would do once a peace agreement was signed and what it has delivered.”

Organizations on the ground have been working with few staff and little resources.  Gearing up capacity is very difficult with such limited resources flowing in.  Even so, now is the time for non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and donors to take a leap.  Confident that funds to support the large-scale activities needed in the South will flow later in the year, Mr. Egeland encouraged non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies to start massive, visible and immediate up-scaling of programmes in the South -– taking advantage of United Nations mechanisms for rapid emergency funds -– and for donors to step up to the plate with funding.

“I visited many parts of Sudan.  I saw that the people believe in the peace.  I saw them engaged in excellent, small community-based projects, but the programmes are too small and too few”, he continued, “We do not have enough money to train more child combatants to become carpenters and masons and tailors.  We do not have enough money to feed those who return to the burnt-down villages of Southern Sudan.  We do not have enough money for the basic health care and education in one of the poorest places on earth.”

“Either the world comes up with the investments or we lose a historic opportunity to put right one of the worst wars of our generation.  To do so we have to think big.”

Tragic Paradox

The contrast between South Sudan and Darfur is a tragic paradox:  while the south has been a diplomatic and political triumph, the funding and capacity to meet humanitarian needs has been absent.  In contrast, political action in Darfur has been weak, but the humanitarian assistance effort has been robust.

“One of the myths in Darfur is that nothing is happening and the international community is not responding to the situation.  We will soon have 10,000 aid workers, who courageously strive to meet the needs of a war-stricken population caught in the crossfire between militia groups, government and rebel troops.”

While in Darfur, Mr. Egeland visited the Kalma and Al Sureif internally displaced persons camps in Nyala.  Food distributions and health care has significantly improved conditions inside internally displaced persons camps -– to the extent that malnutrition rates are better than before the conflict.

“The problem is what is happening outside the camps –- the killings, the rape, and the human rights violations.  Decisive action to stop the perpetrators of these crimes is just not there”, stated Mr. Egeland.  “2005 is also the year where we have to permanently stop the ongoing atrocities in Darfur -– possibly one of the worst ongoing conflicts in the world at the moment.”

Mr. Egeland also visited Labado, a village that was emptied of tens of thousands of people fleeing a spree of violence this past December in which hundreds of huts were burned and livestock looted and many civilians killed.  As a result of the intervention of the African Union monitoring force, residents, and the non-governmental organizations to assist them, have been gradually returning.

“The AU is doing an excellent job -– but there aren’t enough of them”, said Mr. Egleand.  “There are just over 1,800 AU peacekeepers.  There should be as many of them on the ground as there are humanitarians.”

“It is a make-or-break year”, concluded Mr. Egeland on his last night in Sudan.  “If we succeed, peace will not only prevail in Sudan but could also spread to other parts of Africa.  If we fail, it will lead to untold suffering for a long time to come.”

For further information, please call:  Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.:  +41 22 917 2653, mobile:  +41 79 473 4570; Stephanie Bunker, OCHANY, tel.:  +1 917 892 1679, mobile: 917 892 1679; or Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, OCHA Sudan, tel.:  +249-912-174-454, e-mail:  blalock@un.org, web:  http://www.unsudanig.org.

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