Darfur food aid cut in half - 6.1m in Sudan reliant on aid

Despite a two year ceasefire and peace talks, large areas of Darfur are still affected by fighting between government forces, militias and so-called rebels.

Not only are these people responsible for the loss of some 400,000* lives, they also continue to hamper the delivery of food and other aid operations to 3m in Darfur who are totally reliant on emergency aid.

Today, the BBC says the UN is cutting in half its daily rations in Darfur due to a severe funding shortfall.

More than 6.1m people across Sudan require food aid - more than any other country in the world. The bill to feed them all is $746m. African Union troops in Darfur cost Western donors at least $20 million each month. Not to mention the cost of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan or the $4.5 billion earmarked for development.

Imagine the number of water pumps, school books, farming tools and animals that could be purchased for all those hard earned tax dollars, paid for through the work of ordinary Westerners.

Time is up. If those scumbags at the Darfur peace talks don't sign a peace agreement soon and stick to it, they should all be arrested and put on trial for mass murder and crimes against humanity. They've been given enough time.



Photo: Teams of women carefully brush up grains of cereals that spilled from bags air dropped by the World Food Programme, August 15, 2004. See April 28, 2006 WFP halving Darfur rations on funds shortage

Apr 24 2006 AU to end Darfur peace talks if no deal by April 30

Apr 25 2006 SLA's President Minni Minnawi threatens to suspend Darfur peace talks

Apr 26 2006 One third of displaced people in Darfur are cut off from aid

Apr 27 2006 The world watches as deadline for Darfur peace deal looms

Apr 27 2006 SLA's President Minni Minnawi takes his time while millions of Darfurians suffer

Apr 27 2006 FT African Union tells Darfur foes to end fighting - "This is decison time. No more procrastination and no more delaying tactics," Dr Salim, AU chief mediatior said in a statement released on Thursday. "Every journey has a destination and for the Abuja peace talks this is the end."

Apr 28 2006 Washington Post Darfur rebels downbeat as push for peace intensifies (Reuters Estelle Shirbon) - "Most of the things that are proposed will not be part of a just peace. We feel there is no movement from the other side," Abduljabbar Dosa, chief negotiator of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group, told Reuters on the sidelines of the talks. The SLA and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have yet to submit their official reaction to the draft agreement, and Dosa said he was expressing a personal view rather than his group's position.

Apr 29 2006 David Blair Telegraph - More than two million refugees inhabiting squalid camps scattered across Darfur depend on the WFP. In Sudan, where the south is recovering from decades of civil war, the WFP feeds 6.1 million people. This costs about 440 million [British] pounds. But donors have provided only about one third of this sum for 2006. America and Britain are the two most generous bilateral donors. Aside from Libya, no Arab state has contributed anything, despite windfall gains from high oil prices and Sudan's membership of the Arab League.

[*UN estimates 2m displaced Darfurians and death toll in Darfur 200,000 Apr 28, 2006]