Dodging the UN Bullet

The United Nations’ posturing means much of Darfur is now off limits to aid workers

By Rowan Gillies, International President, Médecins Sans Frontières

I returned to Darfur last month, having worked there in July 2004 when few aid agencies were operational and there was a crisis requiring a massive and urgent increase in assistance. Fighting was going on then, but it was possible to rapidly expand the aid effort. Today things are very different.

Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the main health providers in the Darfur region of Sudan over the past 30 months has now drastically reduced its activities, because it has become too dangerous for our staff in some areas.  We have withdrawn from a number of localities, including Korma, North Darfur and Kutrum in the Jebel Mara – a particularly difficult departure given an outbreak of cholera. We have reduced activities at many other sites because a number of aid workers have been targeted - in the past three months, 12 have been killed and dozens more assaulted, beaten and harassed. Médecins Sans Frontières alone has had more than 40 serious security incidents since the beginning of the year.

The number of people receiving assistance is falling, and it is difficult to assess people outside the camps. While Médecins Sans Frontières is responding to the displacement of 35,000 people forced out of Muhajariya in South Darfur recently by fighting, for security reasons we cannot reach those displaced by fighting in the Jebel Moon area.

Foreign aid has done its basic, life-saving job. The crisis is not one measured by data, but of human suffering. The camps are becoming increasingly politicised and violent and the people are unable to move outside them to collect basic necessities for fear of rape or death. They are under attack and threat from Sudanese government forces and rebel militias.

The deteriorating security situation, for which the Sudanese government and militias on all sides have ultimate responsibility, is only intensified by the continued interventionist posturing of the UN Security Council. Many countries of the West – the United States, Great Britain, France, the European Union, along with the African Union, the leadership of the UN and many Western advocacy groups demand the deployment of UN peace-keeping troops as the best way to assist the suffering population, whilst recognising privately that effective intervention is unlikely.

For political leaders to engage in such duplicity is one thing, it is another that humanitarian ambassadors, such as Jan Egeland, the UN deputy secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, publicly support such a campaign. Maintaining neutrality is critical for humanitarian workers to be able to assist in such a war zone.  Taking sides in this way can have dangerous effects on all aid actors.

More importantly, the international strategy has failed to stem the resumption of violence against civilians.  Instead, it has assisted Khartoum and its militias in their anti-Western rhetoric and attacks, escalating a dangerous situation into a nearly impossible one and contributing to the reduction of vital aid operations.

This observation in no way exonerates Khartoum from its ultimate responsibility for attacks in government areas, nor the other warring parties from their primary responsibilities - to ensure that the lives of non-combatants are respected and that humanitarian agencies can provide impartial assistance to the victims.

Médecins Sans Frontières has not expressed an opinion on the benefits or otherwise of military or political actions, and their contribution towards a lasting solution. What we can see, though, is the effect they are having on our ability to keep people alive.

At this, we cannot remain silent, and demand that those responsible for the violence, and those applying pressure externally make it possible for humanitarian assistance to continue.  As it is, the way that pressure is being applied risks sacrificing the very civilians it is ostensibly designed to protect. 

Published in the Bulletin Magazine, November 28, 2006 edition