Britain donates 40 mln pounds in aid to Darfur
Source: Reuters
(Adds comments on UN support to AU) By Opheera McDoom KHARTOUM, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Britain will donate a further 40 million pounds ($76 million) to aid efforts in Darfur to help the world's largest aid operation suffering from daily attacks and government restrictions in Sudan's remote west. Britain is the second largest donor to Darfur, where almost four years of conflict has forced 2.5 million people to flee their homes and killed an estimated 200,000 in violence Washington calls genocide. Khartoum denies genocide. "As we head towards the new year, it is of critical importance that the international community provides early and adequate finance to sustain the massive humanitarian response needed in Darfur," Hilary Benn, Britain's international development minister, said in a statement on Thursday. Britain has to date given 230 million pounds to Darfur. This week the United Nations launched an appeal for some $653 million in 2007 to fund emergency aid and development in Africa's largest country, torn apart by multiple civil wars. The government has signed three peace deals in less than two years to end regional insurgencies. But in Darfur, violence has increased since a deal was signed with only one of three rebel negotiating factions in May. Many war victims in Darfur's miserable camps reject the accord, demanding more compensation, political posts and guarantees militia will be disarmed. The rebels who rejected the agreement formed a new alliance and renewed hostilities with the government in June. On Thursday, the United Nations said an international aid agency convoy was ambushed near el-Geneina town in West Darfur this week. One aid worker was shot in the leg and a policeman escorting the convoy was killed. In December, attacks and clashes in Darfur forced 400 aid workers to be evacuated and paralysed humanitarian operations in large areas of the arid region. Sudan rejects a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising 22,500 U.N. troops and police to take over from a struggling African Union peacekeeping mission which has failed to stem Darfur's violence. A U.N. bulletin on Thursday said the AU command had instructed that AU vehicles should not leave their bases in many locations for fear of banditry. One AU source confirmed this in specific areas where attacks were common. AU soldiers have been attacked many times and one officer in his vehicle was kidnapped this month by unknown armed men in Darfur's main town, el-Fasher. He has still not been released. Khartoum says a U.N. transition in Darfur is an attempt at Western colonisation, but critics say they really fear those troops would arrest any officials likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur. Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a personal envoy to Khartoum to meet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and seek middle ground between the world body and the government. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah met Bashir on Thursday. Sudan's state news agency SUNA quoted Foreign Ministry official al-Sadig al-Magli as saying Khartoum welcomed U.N. support to the AU force. "Al-Sadig al-Magli renewed the government acceptance of the U.N. plan to support the African Union mission in Darfur," SUNA said. But he stopped short of saying Sudan had agreed to allow a joint U.N.-AU force in Darfur. Khartoum is in diplomatic deadlock with the world body. While Annan insists the Khartoum government has agreed to a joint U.N.-AU force in Darfur, Bashir and other officials repeatedly deny this.
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