Darfur, Sudan

An Update on the Unfolding Humanitarian and Human Rights Crisis and the United Church of Canada’s Response

A. Introduction

The United Church of Canada, working through its partner churches in Sudan, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, is responding to the acute humanitarian and human rights crisis in Darfur, western Sudan. (For a map of Sudan and the Darfur region go to http://act-intl.org/sudan/images/sudanmappol.jpg). UN officials have called it the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Some international humanitarian and human rights organizations have alleged “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” on the part of the Government of Sudan, which supports ethnic militia in Darfur that have attacked, killed and displaced civilian populations in huge numbers.

B. Backgrounder

Who’s Fighting Whom?

The Government of Sudan (GOS), which came to power in a coup in 1989, is battling long-neglected and abused African tribal populations in Darfur. These groups are primarily the Fur, the Massaleit and the Zaghawa all of whom are Muslim. Fighting broke out in February 2003, and following initial victories by the insurgency groups, Khartoum changed strategies, seeking not to destroy the military opposition but its civilian base of support – a tactic also used extensively by the GOS in its long war against the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in southern and central Sudan. Also, as it has done for many years in southern Sudan, Khartoum recruited and armed local militia forces to act as its proxies. In Darfur they are drawn from the largely nomadic Arab populations of Darfur and are known as the Janjaweed. Working in concert, Khartoum’s regular military and the Janjaweed have engaged in what several international officials, including Jan Egeland, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, have called a “scorched earth” campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Roots of the Conflict

The conflict in Darfur is not between the GOS and the non-Muslim rebels of southern Sudan. The latter conflict, in fact, appears to have been settled and the formal signing of a peace agreement should occur soon. But because this agreement makes no provision for other marginalized populations and regions in Sudan, many of these people believe that they will continue to be excluded from political power and economic development. The Darfurian insurgents are demanding greater political and economic justice. Many including Sudan’s churches and their international partners have said for years that the conflict in Sudan is not at its core a “north-south” conflict as the GOS has often argued. Rather, it is a national crisis pitting a small group of political and military elites among Sudan’s central riverain people against other Sudanese – African and Arab, Christian and Muslim – throughout the rest of the country, south, east, north and west. For decades these elites have kept the majority of Sudanese in a near perpetual state of underdevelopment as a means of securing and controlling the country’s resource wealth. Racism, religion, lingering crises over ethnic and cultural identify, and traditional rivalries over grazing lands are contributing factors to the conflict.

Darfur is a remote part of Sudan and is difficult to access under the best of conditions. The GOS appears to have counted on this fact in attempting to crush the insurgency out of sight and mind of the international community. Thousands of villages have been systematically overrun and destroyed. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International report mass executions of African men; women and girls are often gang raped; food stocks, seeds and agricultural implements are burned; and cattle are looted. Water wells and irrigation systems are poisoned by corpses or blown up – extraordinarily destructive acts in this seasonally arid region. GOS high-flying bombers attack not only villages but also fleeing civilians.

The Human Toll of the Conflict

The UN estimates that more than one million people are internally displaced in Darfur. Refugees International estimates another 200,000 people have fled into neighbouring Chad. The displaced populations have been forced to seek refuge in what some have called concentration camps. There is little humanitarian access to most of these camps, even as their populations continue to swell. Food and water are exceedingly scarce, except in the rainy season, and are often denied. There are no sanitary facilities and people are dying in large numbers from disease. Seasonal rains have now started and are bringing an explosion of water-borne diseases. UN officials have described conditions in the camps as imprisonment within a policy of “systematic starvation.” The Janjaweed, often the sole authority in the camps, are accused of summary executions and rape.

The UN estimates that more than two million people in Darfur are “war-affected” – this is the population now vulnerable to famine, disease and exposure. ACT says the numbers are much higher. Khartoum has been widely denying aid to the African populations of Darfur, one senior UN official has asserted. The consequences are all too apparent. The US Agency for International Development recently published data indicating that without humanitarian access, between 300,000 and 400,000 people will die of starvation and disease by next spring. At the peak of the famine thousands will die every day. Recently the Sudan government announced its intent to forcibly return displaced Darfurians to their villages. Since there is no longer any food or shelter in these areas, which are out of reach of international aid agencies, it can only bring more misery and death.

Is It Genocide?

Some international officials and human rights and humanitarian groups have described the situation in Darfur as “genocide.” Since it is currently the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, there is a perverse irony in the accusation, especially given the international community’s relative lack of action to address the humanitarian and political dimensions of the crisis, and given it’s pledge of “Never again!” after Rwanda. But is it genocide? Some have said that what is occurring in Darfur is not direct human destruction such as that which occurred in Rwanda in 1994. It is useful to recall, however, that the 1948 Genocide Convention specifies not simply acts of direct human destruction, but those which “deliberately inflict on [an ethnic or racial] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” It appears that this is precisely what the GOS and its proxy militia are doing in Darfur. Difficulties with definitions aside, those with the power to act must at least struggle with the question of whether the toll that is being inflicted on Darfurians is not itself alarming enough to warrant urgent international intervention, action designed to save lives and secure the long term well being of the people affected.

UN Security Council

The UN Security Council has been engaged in discussions on Darfur, motivated in part by the increasing allegations of genocide. A Presidential Statement has been issued underscoring the severity of the crisis and calling on all parties to allow unrestricted humanitarian access and respect human rights, and calling on the GOS to disarm and demobilize the Janjaweed. The Security Council, in the face of continued GOS intransigence, may now be edging closer to imposing sanctions.

C. UN World Food Programme Response

Seasonal rains have now come to the region disrupting transportation routes and making it very difficult for aid organizations that do gain access to deliver emergency food assistance. The result is a food crisis even more acute. UN and other international humanitarian agencies have managed to get some food to the region but getting access to those in need continues to be a significant challenge.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up its operations to meet the massive challenge of getting food into Darfur. The agency is gearing up to move 18,000 tons of food into the western Sudanese province in July, the equivalent of three soccer fields piled seven to eight feet high with food which will be sent by air, road and rail. In June, WFP fed 700,000 people, a number set to rise as more camps become accessible to humanitarian organizations operating in the region.

The arrival of the rains has started to cause problems for transporters and there are already reports of trucks loaded with WFP food struggling to cross wadis (rivers) that flash-flood during heavy rainfall. As much food as possible is currently being airlifted into Darfur and food air-drops are planned later in the rainy season for those communities that will be cut off by the downpours, particularly in the west. WFP is also stocking food at the airport in Nyala (the regional capital) ready to airdrop food should areas become unreachable because of the rains. WFP's extensive experience in airdrops over the past 15 years in South Sudan will be useful but the lack of airstrips in the region will make the operation even more complex. Helicopters will be needed to bring in drop-zone teams that will mark the ground, guide the helicopter crew and organize food distributions. The plan is to put multi-disciplinary assessment and action teams in the helicopters to monitor the situation.

A substantial increase in available resources is still required for WFP to meet its targets in Darfur. To date, WFP has received US$61,469,778 out of the US$195,300,716 required for its emergency operation this year, a shortfall of 68.5 per cent.

D. New Appeal from Action By Churches Together (ACT)

ACT Appeal No. AFSD46
Appeal Target: US$17,539,461

Geneva/Rome, 24 June 2004

More than two million people have been directly affected, and around one million people displaced, by the fighting between rebel groups, the Janjaweed militia (pro-government) and Sudanese government’s forces since early 2003. In all, six million people in Darfur have been affected to some degree. Recent statements by the U.N. Security Council, its representative in Sudan and Human Rights Watch, inter alia, have condemned the situation as one of ethnic cleansing through the use of mass rape, summary killings and a “scorched earth” policy. The U.N. and humanitarian agencies in Sudan have described the situation as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

In May 2004, the Action by Churches Together (ACT) Geneva coordinating office deployed an assessment team to Darfur, Sudan, to assess the changing situation and assist ACT implementing members and partners with revising and consolidating the program to accommodate rapidly growing emergency needs.

Action by Churches Together International and CARITAS Internationalis (CI) are working together in a joint response to the Darfur crisis. The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) is acting as lead agency for Caritas, with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) as lead agency for ACT.

This appeal includes a proposal drawn up by NCA and CAFOD on behalf of the two networks. It seeks to raise financial support for provision of shelter, water, sanitation and basic sleeping and kitchen materials to 500,000 people who have been displaced into camps, who are living near their burned-out villages, or who are acting as host communities in southern and western Darfur. The program also aims to provide supplementary food (50% ration) to 50,000 children under age 5 in the same location and education for school-aged children in the population.

The rainy season is imminent, making access to the affected population even more difficult. We urge our funding members to provide rapid emergency funding for this deserving cause.

Project completion date: 31 December 2005

Summary of appeal targets, pledges/contributions received and balance requested

E. United Church of Canada Response

Humanitarian Response

The United Church of Canada has donated funds from its Emergency Response Budget to two separate appeals for Darfur by Action By Churches Together (ACT): $5,000 in March 2004 and $7,000 in July 2004 (for the most recent ACT Appeal for Darfur). We are also working closely with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) to determine whether a food aid/food security intervention drawing on United Church and other CFGB members' equity can be carried out soon. If access to the region and the safe and effective delivery of food aid can be guaranteed, then CGFB members could make a very significant contribution in helping to alleviate hunger and food insecurity in Darfur. Action on this front is being undertaken as rapidly as the situation will permit.

Advocacy Response

The United Church is working through KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives to press for policy changes, at Canadian and international levels, to secure unrestricted humanitarian access to all affected areas of Darfur, to strategically place monitors in the field to ensure that food aid is not manipulated and civilians are not attacked, to press the GOS to disarm and demobilize the Janjaweed, and to get all conflicting parties to settle their disputes in a peaceful manner through mediated negotiations. A recent KAIROS advocacy letter written to Prime Minister Martin on these issues can be viewed at: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/media/letters/ltrMartin040510.asp

The United Church is also a member of the Sudan Inter-Agency Reference Group (SIARG), a group of some 15 Canadian organizations with programming on Sudan and that collaborate on advocacy. The address in the KAIROS letter.

More information on the crisis in Darfur and on how the United Church is responding will be reported as it becomes available.

F. What You Can Do

1. Pray for the displaced people of Darfur and for those caught in the violence of war and hunger. The knowledge that others are praying for their recovery will give Darfurians comfort and encouragement.

2. Increase support to the Mission and Service Fund of The United Church of Canada. A portion of the M&S Fund is annually allocated for emergency response, and thereby enables the United Church to respond immediately to crises as they erupt.

3. If you wish, you may make a special donation (called a "supragift") to support the immediate relief efforts carried out via Action by Churches Together (ACT) and its partners. Concerned United Church members can mail donations to the Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit of The United Church of Canada (address below). Make your cheque payable to The United Church of Canada and mark it "Darfur crisis." Please note: Supragifts cannot be counted as M&S Fund credits. However, they are eligible for tax receipts. Congregational treasurers may receive and receipt individual cheques and then forward one congregational cheque.

4. Take advocacy action such as that suggested by KAIROS. See http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/urgent/uaDarfur040511.asp for specific suggestions.

Regularly updated news and information about the crisis in Darfur is available at www.irinnews.org (Sudan). The ACT website is also an excellent source of information. Go to http://act-intl.org/sudan/index.html. A video on the crisis in Darfur can be viewed online by visiting www.alertnet.org.

To speak with General Council Office staff about the United Church's response to the crisis in Darfur, please contact:

Humanitarian Issues
Gary Kenny
Emergency Response Coordinator
Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit
416-231-7680, Ext. 4051

Peace and Advocacy Issues
Wendy Gichuru
Area Secretary for East and Central Africa and the Middle East
Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit
416-231-7680, Ext. 4038

The United Church of Canada responds to emergency requests out of its annual Emergency Response budget line, made possible through your gifts to the Mission and Service Fund of The United Church of Canada.