More civilians displaced in continuing attacks by militias in Darfur

Continuing violence in the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan has displaced more civilians at a time when delivery of aid to remote villages has become more difficult, and some of those displaced are now surviving on wild food and grasshoppers, relief agencies said. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), pockets of fighting and militia attacks against civilians were continuing throughout Darfur, complicating the humanitarian crisis and hindering access to affected people. "As an additional concern, the delivery of aid to remote villages is becoming even more difficult because of the heavy rains and bad road conditions," the ICRC said in a report on Friday. In New York, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, citing reports of rapes and other attacks by militias against villagers in Darfur, called on the Sudanese government to protect civilians. Speaking ahead of an expected Security Council vote on a resolution threatening measures against Khartoum if it did not disarm the militias and bring the leaders to justice quickly, Annan appealed to Sudan to stick to its 3 July commitments to disarm the Janjawid militia and ensure security for all those displaced in Darfur. He pointed particularly to West Darfur where the Janjawid have been accused of raping local black African women, many of whom had fled their home villages because of militia attacks, UN News reported. It added that in displaced people's camps in North Darfur, Sudanese government security officials were harassing residents who had spoken to foreign visitors. In Zam Zam camp in North Darfur, for example, the displaced and community leaders had refused to attend the launch of the hygiene promotion campaign by the UN Children's Fund because they feared reprisals from the Sudanese government. The Security Council was expected to meet on Friday to vote on the draft resolution sponsored by the United States and the United Kingdom, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe was quoted saying. The resolution, which condemns the violence in Darfur and expresses concern at the humanitarian situation, calls for an arms embargo on all non-government forces including the Janjawid militia. It notes that the Council might take measures allowed in the UN Charter, including imposing economic penalties and severing diplomatic relations if Sudan did not make progress in carrying out its pledges. It also calls for the resumption of talks between Sudan and the two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The ICRC said lack of food, safe drinking water and basic health care were major problems faced by the displaced. "People are eating wild food - fruit seeds, grass seed, small herbs, traditionally used as supplements, but now the only source of food available - as well as grasshoppers," the ICRC said. The ICRC, which recently sent assessment teams to Jebel Marra in North Darfur, Jebel Mun in West Darfur, and Gereida and Al Daien in South Darfur, said that Gereida, a town of 50,000 located 100 km south of Nyala, had received over 12,000 displaced people who had fled from surrounding villages over the last two weeks. "They have gathered in schools and open fields around the town and have no external assistance whatsoever. Women head many of the newly-displaced families. Anyone with means travels on to Nyala, swelling the already overcrowded camps there," the ICRC said. It called for the safety of the displaced, saying that any return to their homes or relocation to other sites must take place on voluntary basis. It urged all parties to the conflict to observe international humanitarian laws. It also noted that living conditions in camps where Darfur refugees had settled in eastern Chad had continued to deteriorate. "Refugees keep flooding into the newly established camp of Oure Cassoni where some estimated 15,000 people have arrived. The same is happening in Amna Bak (at the Wadi Fira, north of Abéché)," the ICRC said. Meanwhile, some 55,000 people displaced in and around Malakal in the southern Shilluk Kingdom are living in extremely poor conditions and have not received any assistance, the relief organisation, Action by Churches Together (ACT), said on Friday. Launching an appeal for US $1.5 million to provide immediate assistance to the displaced in the region, ACT said there had been a significant increase in the level of displacement around Malakal and the security situation in surrounding villages remained precarious. It said the gravity of the situation in Malakal had been overshadowed by the emergency in Darfur. On 22 July, local sources told IRIN that heavy fighting had broken out in Malakal between the Nuer and Shilluk ethnic groups, near the main boat station along the Nile river. The feuding became so widespread that the army and police intervened and declared a state of emergency. The violence reportedly stemmed from an earlier attack on a raft carrying 25 Nuer civilians transporting 500 kg of wood and charcoal to sell in the market. According to eyewitnesses and Oxfam UK, three people were killed and the raft was set alight. The survivors were unable to identify their assailants, but many Nuer have accused Shilluk tribesmen of launching the attack in retaliation for the militia violence that occurred in the surrounding Shilluk Kingdom in March and April 2004. The Shilluk Kingdom became destabilised after 25 October 2003, when Lam Akol, the leader of a government-allied militia, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A-U), re-defected from the government side to the mainstream SPLM/A. Until then, the area had enjoyed the enviable distinction of having stayed out of Sudan's civil war. As a result of a power vacuum created by Akol's realignment, Khartoum brought in militiamen to the area to support the SPLM/A-U faction, now led by James Othow, and clear potential SPLM/A supporters. Some of Akol's Shilluk forces did not support his move back to the SPLM/A, and were divided over whether or not to fight their former partners.