News - Desperate need in Darfur
Source: British Red Cross Society - UK
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The British Red Cross is urging people to dig deep for the DEC Darfur and Chad Crisis Appeal launched last week as the first rains fall in the region, increasing the need for a
rapid response.Aid agencies need to dramatically bolster life-saving food and medicine stocks before the rainy season gets well underway in July and makes access more difficult.More
than £3 million has been raised in a single week by the UK's leading international aid charities under the banner of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).We urgently need more funds if
we are going to stockpile goods before the rains become heavier.Ros Armitage, British Red Cross conflict managerHowever, rain is starting to fall heavily in Gereida, Darfur
where the Red Cross is providing all basic services to more than 100,000 people – one of the world's largest camps for displaced people – including food, water, healthcare and household
essentials.Ros Armitage, British Red Cross conflict manager said: "The arrival of rains in Darfur is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, people who have been able to stay at home, but to whom
aid agencies have limited access, desperately need the rains for their crops to grow. On the other hand, there are hundreds of thousands of people in desperate conditions in camps for whom the rainy
season will bring further misery."Aid agencies have been issuing warnings of the forthcoming rains to the international community recently and urging people to donate to help them stockpile
for the rainy season, which traditionally falls between May and September.DesperateHowever, when rain falls heavily in July, aid agencies fear roads will become blocked,
sanitation systems often fail and the risk of waterborne diseases rises.Ros added: "For people living in camps, often under nothing more than a plastic sheet, the rains will mean that living
conditions will get much worse. Delivery of basic aid items, which are currently keeping people alive, will become difficult, if not impossible at times."Add to this the threat of the outbreak
of diseases such as cholera and you can begin to imagine how truly awful the situation can become. We still have time to stop this happening but we urgently need more funds if we are going to
stockpile goods before the rains become heavier."
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