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Darfur: Violence Escalates War, Malnutrition Make Sudan the World’s “Most Dangerous Place for Children” October 2006
World Vision continues to provide a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict, but staff members worry that the deteriorating security situation could impede the help they are providing. They are especially concerned for the children. Attacks on villages in recent months have sent thousands streaming into overcrowded relief camps to seek sanctuary. They arrive shell-shocked, sick and famished. World Vision has been distributing monthly food rations to 300,000 people in more than 20 camps and areas affected by conflict. “Having gone hungry for many days, we were afraid that our children would die of hunger,” said grateful aid recipient Salua Salih Adam. Anxiety and Tears One of largest camps for displaced people in South Darfur is Otash camp. Thousands of families are living in tiny makeshift huts. Dan Teng’o, a World Vision worker, described the camp as “suffused with extreme anxiety” as more and more people continue to arrive. He wrote that new arrivals are destitute and desperate, and the faces of children were “washed out by tears.” A Reuters AlertNet poll in July asked aid experts and journalists to name the world’s most dangerous place for children. The number one choice was Sudan, with many naming the region of Darfur. According to UNICEF, some 1.8 million children have been affected by the conflict in Darfur. They are especially vulnerable to disease, malnutrition and violence. Beyond Desperate “Medical and human needs in Darfur are already beyond desperate, especially among women and children,” said Henry Duba, World Vision’s emergency health specialist in Darfur. “Any further worsening of security would mean a decline in the capacity of aid organizations to respond and a consequent deterioration in the humanitarian situation.” Security concerns in the humanitarian community were heightened when 12 aid workers were killed in July and August. The scheduled departure of African Union peacekeepers on September 30 added to fears, but the troops are now staying until the end of 2006. Some 3.6 million in Darfur are affected by the conflict, yet vast areas are almost completely inaccessible to aid agencies due to violence and insecurity. In North Darfur, 350,000 people have been stranded for months without food aid. In response to God’s call to care for the poor, World Vision has provided humanitarian aid in Darfur since 2004. The United Nations estimates nearly 2 million people are living in temporary camps and 200,000 people have died in the three-year conflict. Get Involved
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