The Darfur Consortium

An African and International
Civil Society Action for Darfur

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July 11

Reuters: Violence Overwhelms Relief Workers In Darfur. Violence has escalated in Sudan's Darfur region since January, throwing another 160,000 people out of their homes and forcing 4.2 million people, about two-thirds of the population, to go on relief aid, the United Nations reported on Tuesday. Some 2.1 million people have been uprooted from their villages in addition to the more than 200,000 who have fled the country, mainly to neighboring Chad, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said. Particularly worrying are attacks against relief workers, which have increased 150 percent over the past year, OCHA said. In June, one out of every six convoys leaving provincial capitals in Darfur was hijacked or ambushed by "armed groups," a term usually applied to bandits or anti-government rebels. Since January, some 64 vehicles have been hijacked, with 132 staff temporarily detained, often at gunpoint.

Associated Press: EU Investigating Fate of Darfur Funds. European funds designated for the African Union mission in Darfur have not reached the undermanned and underequipped military force for months, leaving soldiers there without pay, officials said Tuesday. The African Union acknowledged the problem, but said the European Union requires cumbersome accounting impossible in a remote and violent region the size of France. The European Commission has earmarked $384 million for the African Union since November 2004, and further funds have been provided by the individual EU states, for a total of more than $544 million. The European Union is investigating why its money has not been paid to AU soldiers, officials said Tuesday. The AU is supposed to pay the soldiers, but a recent EU fact-finding mission to Sudan's war-torn western region met with widespread complaints from unpaid troops, Spanish EU lawmaker Josep Borrell said. ''We're in a situation which is very embarrassing. For months they have not received their pay. Some have not received any pay at all,'' said Borrell, a former president of the EU assembly who led the four-day mission.

Mail & Guardian: AU faces serious funding crunch in Darfur. African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region are facing a serious funding crunch that has affected morale ahead of deployment of a planned United Nations-AU force, the head of the joint mission said on Wednesday. Under sustained international pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined UN-AU peacekeeping force of 20 000 troops and police to bolster the cash-strapped AU force of 7 000 that is already operating in western Sudan. But the UN said late last month the joint force was not expected to be in place for six months. In the meantime, the AU does not have the funds to meet expenses. "The financial problem is very serious. We have personnel in the field who have not been paid for four months. This is very bad for the morale of the troops in the field," said Rodolphe Adada, the joint UN-AU special representative for Darfur and head of the AU's Sudan mission.

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