Crisis in Darfur - Fifth Anniversary Update, April 2008
April marks the five-year anniversary of the Darfur crisis, and also a year since Oxfam’s appeal, supported by TRAID, to raise further awareness and funds for the continued humanitarian crisis. The suffering and devastation still continues on an unimaginable scale. Violence has left over 4 million people in need of aid and forced 2.5 million to escape their homes and seek refuge in vast, crowded camps both in Darfur and across the border in Chad. These numbers continue to rise, as thousands more flee the ongoing violence every month.
Oxfam in Darfur
Oxfam's current programmes are designed not only to keep people healthy and reduce disease, but also to help people maintain their basic human dignity.
Provision of clean safe water
Oxfam has been able to deliver clean drinking water by drilling hundreds of boreholes, and constructing pumps and tap-stands that communities can easily operate and maintain themselves. Over the past year, clean and safe drinking water has been provided to over 400,000 displaced people living in camps across Darfur. Each person has been provided with an average of 11.5 litres of water each day.
Improved sanitation
This is being achieved through building latrines and washing facilities; distributing essential items such as soap, buckets and jerry cans for carrying water; and organising community clean up campaigns in the camps and villages. Across Darfur 435,000 people now have access to adequate sanitary facilities, including latrines and washing facilities
Public Health Promotion
Oxfam train hundreds of community volunteers to educate others about sanitation and personal hygiene, and we recruit attendants from within the camp’s communities to keep toilets and washing facilities clean, and to make sure water sources are protected. Over 10,000 home visits, promoting good hygiene practices, have been made in North Darfur alone over the past year.
Rebuilding Livlihoods
Traditional livelihoods of agriculture and trade have been largely destroyed by the conflict. Effectively trapped in the camps, people cannot access their fields and markets without risk of being attacked. Women going out to collect firewood are frequently harassed, assaulted and abducted. Oxfam is working to provide people with the skills and opportunities to gain an income and reduce the dependency on external aid. For example, by training plumbers, welders, builders, vets and carpenters; and by distributing seeds, tools and ploughs in areas where they can be used. Oxfam has also distributed donkeys and animals.
Looking to the future
Oxfam is planning to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced people in Darfur and Chad for the foreseeable future. Two million people are likely to remain in the camps for some time to come. The international community must do more to bring about three key changes that will improve the lives of civilians. Oxfam is calling for:
- A cessation of hostilities – Oxfam is calling for all the many parties involved in the conflict to urgently agree, and adhere to, an immediate cessation to hostilities and to respect international humanitarian law. Parties must stop targeting civilians and humanitarians, and create a safe environment for aid workers to deliver vital assistance.
- A strong protection force – the world has so far failed to protect civilians in Darfur. The UN authorised a larger and stronger ‘UNAMID’ force that took over in January 2008, but it is still woefully under strength. World leaders must do more to ensure that the force is a strong as possible, and that the people of Darfur have a force capable of protecting them.
- An inclusive peace agreement - greater effort must be made to invigorate fully inclusive political negotiations, and the international community must provide coordinated and sustained leadership to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
To find out more or to make a donation visit Oxfam
