August 3, 2007

The global alliance Action by Churches Together International, of which Church World Service is a supporting member, is urging the international community to increase its response to the grave humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and step up efforts for creating a lasting peace in the wider region.

This follows the long-awaited breakthrough resolution by the United Nations (UN) Security Council to send 26,000 peacekeepers to the conflict-stricken region. The purpose of the peacekeepers is to provide vital security to civilians and aid workers in Darfur.

"Although we recognise that this force is not an end-all solution to the conflict, we do hope it brings greater stability and access to some four million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance," says Sushant Agrawal, ACT moderator.

The peacekeepers could take into 2008 to be in place, which means that the African Union presence of only 7,000 troops will continue to be the main peacekeeping force in Darfur for the coming months. The new peacekeeping force is to combine with the African (Union) Mission in Sudan (AMIS) by the end of the year, and will have increased authority to use force to protect civilians and assist in the delivery of relief supplies.

The United Nations estimates that the crisis has resulted in more than 300,000 deaths. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced, and an estimated four million people have been affected since the outbreak of fighting in 2003.

Hopes that the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed in Abuja, Nigeria, in May 2006, would bring some peace to the region and permit the process of rehabilitation and recovery to start have not materialized. Humanitarian conditions and security have deteriorated steadily since then.

"The only lasting solution is a negotiated peace agreement, which now needs concerted international focus," says Agrawal. It is hoped that a meeting originally planned for this week in Arusha, Tanzania, to push for unity among different factions involved in the conflict in Darfur, will lay the framework for a new round of peace negotiations.

The global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and Caritas Internationalis have been responding jointly in Darfur from the outset of the crisis, working through a network of faith-based and Sudanese aid agencies. With support from Church World Service and many others, it has been providing shelter, clean water and sanitation, as well as building health clinics and schools for people living in camps for the displaced.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read more about CWS response to the crisis in Sudan

Media Contact: Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org