The Sudanese region of Darfur has been a major focus of regional and international attention this year, with expressed concern for the more than one million people affected by a massive humanitarian crisis reaching crescendo levels in March and April.

A UN fact-finding mission travelled to the area in late April to look into the human rights situation. A high-level multi-agency mission arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on 27 April for talks with the government and a look at the Darfur crisis. And the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, sent a team to the Chadian border to verify reports that 200 to 300 Sudanese refugees have been crossing weekly from Darfur into Chad since the beginning of April despite a ceasefire accord.

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur has drawn much of the attention away from talks in Kenya between Sudan's government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The negotiations are brokered by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body which includes Sudan and many of its neighbours.

The two sides reached agreement on some key issues, including the sharing of oil wealth between northern and southern Sudan, but were yet to agree on the question of Islamic rule (shari'ah) in Khartoum, and the status of three areas in central Sudan: the Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile, and oil-rich Abyei.

Parallel talks in Ndjamena, Chad, between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups from Darfur yielded a renewable 45-day ceasefire on 8 April. As the month of April drew to a close, media reports from the Chadian capital had it that the talks were deadlocked, a claim denied by Chad's government.

Despite reports in early April that it had been violated by Arab militias known as Janjawid, accused of attacking non-Arab communities in the three states that make up Darfur, the ceasefire enabled relief workers to access some vulnerable people from whom they had been cut off. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), for example, reported on 27 April that it had begun assisting people who had been unreachable before the ceasefire.

The Darfur conflict

Northern, Southern and Western Darfur, located along Sudan's border with Chad, are home to about a quarter of the 25 million Sudanese. Its people are divided between pastoral, and mostly nomadic, Arabic-speaking communities, loosely known as "Arabs", and sedentary ethnic groups who speak African languages: mainly the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawah.

An ongoing ethnic conflict in Darfur between Arab and non-Arab communities escalated in late 2002. In February 2003, a group called the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) took up arms in reaction, it said, to underdevelopment, political marginalisation and a lack of government protection against attacks by nomadic groups against sedentary populations.

In response to the insurgency, the government mobilised and armed Arab militias, according to various sources, including the International Crisis Group (ICG), a highly respected think-tank. The government denied arming Arab militias, saying it had called upon all ethnic groups to defend Darfur against the insurgents.

The Darfur crisis has uprooted over a million people, according to UN estimates. Most have been displaced within Darfur, while over 110,000 have fled to Chad.

The United Nations has appealed for donor funding to cater for the growing needs in the region. In September 2003, it had asked for US $23 million for Darfur. Since then needs had increased fourfold, according to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, and at least US $115 million was needed, plus US $30 million for refugees and host communities in Chad.

Reports of ethnic cleansing cause concern

The refugees in Chad told similar stories of atrocities against civilians by the Janjawid. In some cases, they said, Sudanese military aircraft would bomb villages, after which the militias would attack. The militias, they said, killed men and boys over the age of 15, raped women and girls and abducted children. Similar abuses were reported by human rights groups.

UN officials, non-governmental groups such as Amnesty International and the ICG, the US and other governments and institutions such as the African Union have raised concern about the reported atrocities.

Darfurian boys and women shelter from the endless sandstorms along the Chad/Sudan border Credit: Boris Hegen

"We receive reports now on a daily basis from our own people on the ground in Darfur on widespread atrocities and grave violations of human rights against the civilian population," Egeland told IRIN in an interview in early April."Stopping these attacks against women, children, the displaced and refugees and ensuring their protection is our number one priority.

"We have also seen an organised campaign of forced depopulation of entire areas that has resulted in the displacement of hundreds and thousands of people, both within Darfur and to neighbouring Chad," he said.

In the latter part of March, the outgoing UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, noted that the violence in Darfur appeared to be "particularly targeted at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears to be systematised."

"Thus," he said, "it is akin to ethnic cleansing."

Sudanese officials deny claims of ethnic cleansing

Such claims have been denied by Sudanese government officials. In an interview with IRIN on 8 April, the Sudanese under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Abd al-Rahman Abu Daum, said that the situation in Darfur had been misrepresented. He said that while there was no denying that there was a conflict, there was no basis for talk of ethnic cleansing.

The media, he charged, were not reporting peace initiatives that were being conducted at the local level. People, he added, were helping each other. "The so-called people ["Arabs"] who, according to the international media are behind these atrocities, are the ones providing camels for the displaced to take whatever goods they have in their displaced camp back to their villages," he said.

Dr Sulaf al-Din Salih, commissioner-general of Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission, told IRIN the international community was misinformed over the situation in Darfur. In an interview on 2 April in Khartoum, that claims that the militias, aided by the military, were carrying out a scorched-earth policy or ethnic cleansing were part of a political campaign against the Sudanese government.

He also denied that the state had been arming one group against the others. "We asked all the people of Darfur to help in protecting themselves against the rebellion," he said. "This is standard practice which we do in this country. Whenever there is an attack on a community, we ask the local community to support, to help."

Insufficient access hampers relief effort

Efforts to assist the victims of the Darfur conflict were hampered by the insecurity in the area - vehicles carrying relief supplies have come under attack in recent months - and, according to humanitarian agencies, long delays in obtaining clearance from the Sudanese authorities to go to Darfur.

And despite the fact that many of the displaced were destitute, and accomodating them was placing already poor host families and communities under severe strain, some of the victims had reportedly declined assistance - or reduced the amount they accepted - for fear of becoming targets of militia attacks.

Egeland reflected the hopes of the humanitarian community when, in an interview with IRIN in early April, he argued that the government of Sudan should commit to the disarmament and control of the Janjawid militia, ensure that the targeting of civilians ceased immediately, and make sure all humanitarian personnel had full, unimpeded access to all areas of Darfur.

Access appeared to have improved in the latter part of April: UNICEF was able to vaccinate children in previously inaccessible parts of the region, while Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) also carried out immunisations against measles.

Urgent action required

However, MSF warned in a 28 April news release that the health of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons was worsening because urgently needed aid was lacking. The NGO reported high malnutrition levels among the displaced, especially among children, and noted that "despite announcements of forthcoming aid, assistance [was] utterly inadequate".

"Mobilisation of aid efforts is slow and the few organisations operating in Darfur cannot meet the full range of needs," it said. "People in the region are completely dependent on aid to survive. […] "If promised aid does not materialise quickly, the decline already under way will only worsen."

MSF also noted that the threat to the survival of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons would increase when the rainy season began in May and roads became impassable, further hindering the delivery of aid.

"Urgent action is required," it urged.