Agencies warn over Darfur relief flights

SUDAN: INTERNATIONAL AID agencies yesterday warned that millions of people in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur would be left without help unless donors step up funding for emergency relief flights.

Concern and Goal, along with 12 other charities, said banditry had made most roads unusable.

Instead they rely on helicopters and planes run by the United Nation's Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS).

Yesterday, it was announced that the Irish Government, the European Commission and several other donors had offered $6 million (€3.8 million) - enough to keep the service flying for one more month.

Conor Elliott, Sudan country director for Goal, said: "This is the largest humanitarian emergency in the world yet UNHAS only has funding for the next four weeks.

"Goal uses UNHAS to fly to all of our projects in Darfur and Abyei in the south. It's a wonderful service and vital because if we go overland there is a big risk of carjacking and so on." More than 200,000 people have died in five years of conflict since rebels took up arms against the Khartoum government. Peace talks last year broke up without agreement after several rebel factions boycotted negotiations.

Government planes took to the air last month in west Darfur, close to the border with Chad, bombing rebel-held villages.

With rains due in weeks, the charities said some two million people would be cut off without the UN's helicopter service.

In a joint statement, they said: "While we are relieved that donors have provided this new short-term support . . . A service upon which millions of people depend should not have to fear for its future every month."

Oxfam said more than half of the 400,000 people it assists across Darfur can only be accessed by air because the roads are unsafe.

Kenro Oshidari of the World Food Programme said: "There is a big gap between the $6 million we have now and the $77 million that we need this year."

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times