The most vulnerable people in Darfur face a high risk of “increased morbidity and mortality” following the expulsion of 16 aid agencies three weeks ago, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Sudan warned on Tuesday.
Ameerah Haq said that while the immediate needs of the 4.7 million people reliant on relief in Darfur were mostly being met through stop-gap measures, up to 650,000 people were without access to full healthcare. Feeding programs for malnourished children and pregnant women also remained disrupted.
Many clinics remain closed, while others are being run by local staff at a basic level. One agency expressed concern on Tuesday at reports that “non-health professionals” in displaced persons’ camps were using the medical equipment it had been forced to leave behind.
Thirteen foreign agencies and three local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) responsible for at least half the aid provision in Darfur were expelled on Mar. 4, just minutes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Humanitarian officials have warned that Sudan’s pledge to fill the aid gap is unlikely to succeed while supplies of food, medicine and water are all under threat. Darfur’s main rebel group has urged people to reject all government assistance.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing a two-month ration to 1.1 million displaced people who were served by Care, Solidarites, Action Against Hunger and Save the Children, which have all been expelled.
But Rachid Jafaar, a WFP official, warned that this was unsustainable and the organization could not guarantee that all the people affected, at 140 sites, would receive food.
The situation has been exacerbated by a surge in attacks on aid workers, which has severely restricted the activities of some of the agencies left on the ground.
Three foreign Medecins Sans Frontieres workers were kidnapped for several days by a militia supportive of Bashir, and a local employee of a Canadian aid agency was shot dead on Monday night.
NGO officials say Sudan’s security service has been overruling the state humanitarian affairs commission on which aid groups are allowed to work, and where.
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