Sudan – ICRC Bulletin No. 48 / 2006
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Latest report on ICRC activities in the field
Humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Darfur One of the most serious consequences of the upsurge in fighting in all three Darfur States since the end of the rainy season, has been the increase in the number of people displaced from villages that have been attacked, or lie close to front lines.
An assessment by an ICRC team based in North Darfur in November found that thousands of people who had fled from areas north of Kutum over the previous two months are now widely scattered.
Many have taken refuge in more remote areas; others are being hosted in distant villages.
Hundreds of people have headed for camps around Kutum People met by the ICRC during field visits north and east of Kutum told the team that their main concerns are for security, water and medical care.
Delegates carried out emergency repairs to village water points, carried out health assessments, initiated the tracing of separated families, and facilitated the transfer of liberated members of the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The ICRC's Field Surgical Team (FST) was deployed four times during November, close to front lines in remote areas of North Darfur where no other medical facilities are available.
During one deployment in mid-November, the team operated on 27 injured persons in a 20-hour period without a break.
The operations began at 07.30 hrs in the morning and finished in the early hours of the following day.
In total, some 40 injured combatants from both sides, as well as civilians were treated during that deployment.
The operations were carried out in an abandoned school clearly marked with the protective Red Cross emblem.
The presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in and around villages that have been attacked poses an enormous threat to both humans and animals.
Anyone who touches an UXO is likely to be killed, or at best maimed, if it explodes.
The relevant UN agencies have been alerted and are clearing contaminated areas.
The ICRC appeals for awareness sessions to be held with the utmost urgency in the affected locations, to ensure that people understand how to avoid taking risks.
Deteriorating security An attack on an ICRC residence in Kutum, North Darfur shortly after midnight on 8th December was the latest in a string of security incidents affecting ICRC operations in Darfur.
It will be remembered that an ICRC driver tragically lost his life after being abducted, also in North Darfur, in August.
Over recent weeks, security for humanitarian workers has become steadily more precarious as a result of hijackings of vehicles, harassment and attacks on staff and the looting of convoys.
A Sudanese Red Crescent car was hijacked in West Darfur in early December along with two staff members.
Thankfully, they were released after having been driven some distance.
The car is still missing.
The motive for the attack on the ICRC house in Kutum is not known.
An investigation is ongoing.
The expatriates normally based there are temporarily in Al Fashir, from where they are managing the office with support from the national staff.
Fighting in Malakal When fighting between soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) broke out in Malakal southern Sudan on the 27th November, an ICRC team on the spot offered its services as a neutral intermediary to both sides.
When fighting stopped two days later, the delegates went to the front lines to collect the bodies of 27 SPLA soldiers lying in SAF-controlled areas, which could not be retrieved by their own men.
The ICRC also provided the SPLA with dressing material to treat their wounded, and provided similar assistance to the 400-bed Malakal hospital.
The ICRC's services were not requested by the SAF, who indicated their ability to collect their dead and treat their injured themselves.
In addition to assisting with the collection of bodies, volunteers from the Sudanese Red Crescent distributed chlorine tablets to the population as a precaution against an outbreak of water borne diseases.
Civilians who had fled to neighbouring villages when the fighting started returned to the town -- which had luckily suffered very little structural damage -- once calm was restored on the 1st December.
The clashes were the heaviest in Malakal since a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLA and the Government of Sudan was signed in January 2005.
The situation remains tense Launch of the ICRC's 2007 Appeal for Sudan The completion of several programmes during 2006 has allowed next year's budget for the Sudan to be reduced by 40 per cent.
The Sudan operation, nevertheless, remains the ICRC's largest action worldwide for the fourth year running.
The programmes that have prompted the budget cut include the handing over of the ICRC field hospital in Lokichokio, northern Kenya to the Kenyan government.
The hospital treated war wounded patients from southern Sudan during the country's long civil war with the north.
The medical and orthopaedic activities that took place in Lokichokio have been re-located to Juba.
In addition, food distribution in the Gereida camps in South Darfur was handed over to the World Food Programme and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) at the end of July.
The ICRC will also shortly be turning over its feeding programmes and primary health care centre in Gereida to other agencies.
The Institution will also not continue its widespread food distributions during 2007.
This decision is based on in-depth field assessments and post-harvest monitoring in accessible areas of Darfur, including parts of Jebel Marra.
As a result of these assessments the ICRC believes that to provide people with seeds, tools and other items that can help them sustain themselves through income generating activities is more of a complement to what other agencies are doing by way of food assistance, and helps lessen dependency on aid especially in areas where a reasonable harvest has been obtained.
By reducing its food assistance in 2007, the ICRC in no way underestimates the enormous difficulties facing hundreds of thousands of Darfuris, especially in areas where the security situation is precarious and coping mechanisms are under strain because of poor security.
To this end, the Institution will maintain an emergency response capacity next year, so as to be able to cover the urgent needs of people displaced by conflict, or otherwise forced to flee their homes anywhere in the Sudan.
However, as in 2006, the ICRC will keep the major thrust of its operations next year focused on rural communities, targeting residents living in remote villages in all three Darfur States.
Activities during November: By maintaining a flexible approach, and seizing opportunities to make field trips whenever and wherever the security situation allowed, ICRC teams were able to carry out a substantial number of activities in all three Darfur States during November and the early part of December.
Work also continued normally in southern, eastern and central Sudan apart from the clashes in Malakal described above.
The following activities were carried out countrywide during November: the repair and installation of 44 hand pumps in 19 settlements in South
and West Darfurthe rehabilitation of two village water yards in Al Murmallah and Joghana, South Darfur and the handover of the water yard in the hospital in Kabkabiye, North Darfur the cleaning
and repair of two shallow wells in Twail, South Darfur the continuation of work on the Zalingei water network to improve supplies to 17,000 IDPS in two camps, and 15,000 residents of the town
continued tracing activities all over Sudan in order to keep separated families in touch through the exchange of Red Cross messages (RCMs).
Over 1,800 RCMs were collected during November, and some 1,200 distributed during the same period.
Several of the detainees visited during field trips in North Darfur following the fighting north and east of Kutum wrote RCMs to their families health delegates continued their support for the Ministry of Health's expanded programme of immunisation (EPI) campaign in North and South Darfur ICRC support to the Juba
Teaching Hospital (JTH) continued.
There were 2,450 admissions and 2,676 outpatients consultations.
Five hundred operations were performed the ICRC also continued to work
closely with the Juba Orthopaedic Workshop to provide orthopaedic services to amputees during a two-week ICRC-supported vaccination campaign for livestock in villages around Dar Es Salaam, North
Darfur, 72,060 animals were immunised against major diseases such as hemorrhagic septicaemia and black quarter.
Ten community animal health workers, previously trained by the ICRC, participated as vaccinators, together with two vet technicians working with the local authorities in Al Fashir For further information, please contact:
Jessica Barry, ICRC Khartoum, tel : +249 9121 70576
Claudia McGoldrick, ICRC Geneva, tel : +41 79 217 3216
See also ICRC media contacts
This article on www.icrc.org
Humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Darfur One of the most serious consequences of the upsurge in fighting in all three Darfur States since the end of the rainy season, has been the increase in the number of people displaced from villages that have been attacked, or lie close to front lines.
An assessment by an ICRC team based in North Darfur in November found that thousands of people who had fled from areas north of Kutum over the previous two months are now widely scattered.
Many have taken refuge in more remote areas; others are being hosted in distant villages.
Hundreds of people have headed for camps around Kutum People met by the ICRC during field visits north and east of Kutum told the team that their main concerns are for security, water and medical care.
Delegates carried out emergency repairs to village water points, carried out health assessments, initiated the tracing of separated families, and facilitated the transfer of liberated members of the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The ICRC's Field Surgical Team (FST) was deployed four times during November, close to front lines in remote areas of North Darfur where no other medical facilities are available.
During one deployment in mid-November, the team operated on 27 injured persons in a 20-hour period without a break.
The operations began at 07.30 hrs in the morning and finished in the early hours of the following day.
In total, some 40 injured combatants from both sides, as well as civilians were treated during that deployment.
The operations were carried out in an abandoned school clearly marked with the protective Red Cross emblem.
The presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in and around villages that have been attacked poses an enormous threat to both humans and animals.
Anyone who touches an UXO is likely to be killed, or at best maimed, if it explodes.
The relevant UN agencies have been alerted and are clearing contaminated areas.
The ICRC appeals for awareness sessions to be held with the utmost urgency in the affected locations, to ensure that people understand how to avoid taking risks.
Deteriorating security An attack on an ICRC residence in Kutum, North Darfur shortly after midnight on 8th December was the latest in a string of security incidents affecting ICRC operations in Darfur.
It will be remembered that an ICRC driver tragically lost his life after being abducted, also in North Darfur, in August.
Over recent weeks, security for humanitarian workers has become steadily more precarious as a result of hijackings of vehicles, harassment and attacks on staff and the looting of convoys.
A Sudanese Red Crescent car was hijacked in West Darfur in early December along with two staff members.
Thankfully, they were released after having been driven some distance.
The car is still missing.
The motive for the attack on the ICRC house in Kutum is not known.
An investigation is ongoing.
The expatriates normally based there are temporarily in Al Fashir, from where they are managing the office with support from the national staff.
Fighting in Malakal When fighting between soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) broke out in Malakal southern Sudan on the 27th November, an ICRC team on the spot offered its services as a neutral intermediary to both sides.
When fighting stopped two days later, the delegates went to the front lines to collect the bodies of 27 SPLA soldiers lying in SAF-controlled areas, which could not be retrieved by their own men.
The ICRC also provided the SPLA with dressing material to treat their wounded, and provided similar assistance to the 400-bed Malakal hospital.
The ICRC's services were not requested by the SAF, who indicated their ability to collect their dead and treat their injured themselves.
In addition to assisting with the collection of bodies, volunteers from the Sudanese Red Crescent distributed chlorine tablets to the population as a precaution against an outbreak of water borne diseases.
Civilians who had fled to neighbouring villages when the fighting started returned to the town -- which had luckily suffered very little structural damage -- once calm was restored on the 1st December.
The clashes were the heaviest in Malakal since a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the SPLA and the Government of Sudan was signed in January 2005.
The situation remains tense Launch of the ICRC's 2007 Appeal for Sudan The completion of several programmes during 2006 has allowed next year's budget for the Sudan to be reduced by 40 per cent.
The Sudan operation, nevertheless, remains the ICRC's largest action worldwide for the fourth year running.
The programmes that have prompted the budget cut include the handing over of the ICRC field hospital in Lokichokio, northern Kenya to the Kenyan government.
The hospital treated war wounded patients from southern Sudan during the country's long civil war with the north.
The medical and orthopaedic activities that took place in Lokichokio have been re-located to Juba.
In addition, food distribution in the Gereida camps in South Darfur was handed over to the World Food Programme and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) at the end of July.
The ICRC will also shortly be turning over its feeding programmes and primary health care centre in Gereida to other agencies.
The Institution will also not continue its widespread food distributions during 2007.
This decision is based on in-depth field assessments and post-harvest monitoring in accessible areas of Darfur, including parts of Jebel Marra.
As a result of these assessments the ICRC believes that to provide people with seeds, tools and other items that can help them sustain themselves through income generating activities is more of a complement to what other agencies are doing by way of food assistance, and helps lessen dependency on aid especially in areas where a reasonable harvest has been obtained.
By reducing its food assistance in 2007, the ICRC in no way underestimates the enormous difficulties facing hundreds of thousands of Darfuris, especially in areas where the security situation is precarious and coping mechanisms are under strain because of poor security.
To this end, the Institution will maintain an emergency response capacity next year, so as to be able to cover the urgent needs of people displaced by conflict, or otherwise forced to flee their homes anywhere in the Sudan.
However, as in 2006, the ICRC will keep the major thrust of its operations next year focused on rural communities, targeting residents living in remote villages in all three Darfur States.
Activities during November: By maintaining a flexible approach, and seizing opportunities to make field trips whenever and wherever the security situation allowed, ICRC teams were able to carry out a substantial number of activities in all three Darfur States during November and the early part of December.
Work also continued normally in southern, eastern and central Sudan apart from the clashes in Malakal described above.
The following activities were carried out countrywide during November:
Over 1,800 RCMs were collected during November, and some 1,200 distributed during the same period.
Several of the detainees visited during field trips in North Darfur following the fighting north and east of Kutum wrote RCMs to their families
There were 2,450 admissions and 2,676 outpatients consultations.
Five hundred operations were performed
Ten community animal health workers, previously trained by the ICRC, participated as vaccinators, together with two vet technicians working with the local authorities in Al Fashir For further information, please contact:
Jessica Barry, ICRC Khartoum, tel : +249 9121 70576
Claudia McGoldrick, ICRC Geneva, tel : +41 79 217 3216
See also ICRC media contacts
This article on www.icrc.org
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