Help to Darfur may be cut

The UN refugee agency said today that unless it receives more money soon, it will have to cut back "drastically", on operations to return tens of thousands of people who fled southern Sudan’s 21-year civil war.

Mr Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said there was not enough money to support the agency’s goal of helping some of the 350,000 south Sudanese who were forced flee to neighbouring countries before the conflict ended earlier this year.

The funding shortfall, according to the agency, "could mean suspending, postponing, reducing or cancelling some south Sudan programs", by the end of September. It is seeking about US$5.2 million ($4.1 million) each month to help returning refugees and some 4 million south Sudanese uprooted from their homes but still within the country.

"It is crucial that this effort continue for the people of Southern Sudan who have made the brave choice to return home and rebuild their lives," said Mr Guterres. 

The UNHCR statement comes a day after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report that many of the most important promises made under a peace deal ending warfare in the south had not been met, threatening to plunge the long-suffering region back into violence.

The dire assessment said the Khartoum-based government and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which signed the deal with great fanfare in January 2005, have fallen well behind on plans for elections and are not sharing power and wealth as called for.

Mr Annan’s report also said international donors have only provided about 56 percent – or US$896.5 million ($704.6 million) – of the money called for to rebuild south Sudan. "Pledges for more are also well below the amount needed," said Mr Annan.

The south Sudan conflict was separate from the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur, where over 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million have fled their homes since ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government in 2003.

UNHCR said it has helped 12,000 refugees return to south Sudan this year, but said thousands more are expected to arrive from neighbouring countries as the rainy season begins. It also has helped 12,000 ethnic Dinka tribespeople who had been displaced within Sudan to return home with their 1.5 million head of cattle.

Another 100,000 refugees have returned to south Sudan without UNHCR’s assistance, it added.
 

•  The Oscar-winning actor George Clooney brought some Hollywood glamour to the United Nations, as he used his star power to turn the spotlight on Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur.

  Together with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, Mr Clooney urged members of the UN’s Security Council to help end atrocities in the region.

  UN staffers gathered outside the basement meeting room on Thursday to catch a glimpse of the actor burst into a huge round of applause as Mr Clooney, dressed in a sober suit and tie, arrived with Wiesel for the informal briefing organised by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.(AP)