UN appeals for donations for people displaced by civil strife in Sudan

The United Nations humanitarian affairs office appealed today for urgent donations to provide water, food, shelter and sanitation for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese who have been displaced by civil strife in the Greater Darfur Region or have fled into neighbouring Chad, despite a ceasefire agreement.

“Urgent funding is required to provide to new IDPs (internally displaced persons) in North and South Darfur shelter materials, food aid, water supplies, sanitation, health care, education and agricultural inputs,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

While no new figure was given in the latest appeal, OCHA noted that last week the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed for $16.6 million to aid 70,000 Sudanese refugees who have been living in a desperate situation on the Chad-Sudan border for months.

On 15 September, the UN announced a $22.8 million humanitarian plan, called the Greater Darfur Special Initiative, which would accelerate relief for the most vulnerable, OCHA said.

Greater Darfur stretches along the western Sudanese border with Chad and part of the Central African Republic.

“The number of people in the Darfur region displaced because of recent conflict is estimated at 300,000. In addition, there are up to 200,000 internally displaced persons who arrived in 1988, 1992 and 2001,” OCHA said.

“Militias continue to destroy livelihoods and cause displacement into Nyala town in south Darfur, global malnutrition rates have reportedly increased and humanitarian partners on the ground do not have the human and financial resources to cope with the evolving situation,” the Office added.