Sudan's Darfur, in many cases, is no longer an emergency says UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes

At long last, a worthy news quote that confirms what I am thinking: Darfur is no longer an emergency.

Hey you stopgenocidesavedarfurcrowd! Stick this in your pipe and smoke it:

DARFUR, IN MANY CASES, IS NO LONGER AN EMERGENCY SAYS UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF JOHN HOLMES

November 25, 2008 7:14 AM EST, KALMA CAMP, Sudan AFP report via Morning Star/Dow Jones - UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF CONCERNED ABOUT LONG-TERM DARFUR AID - copy in full:

The top U.N. humanitarian official Tuesday asked how long the world could fund relief efforts in Sudan's Darfur, where aid workers are attacked almost daily after nearly six years of war.

John Holmes, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, made the remarks on his third visit to Darfur while visiting Kalma Camp, which houses around 100,000 of the 2.7 million people displaced by the fighting in western Sudan.

The consequences of an uprising by ethnic rebels against the Sudanese government in February 2003 and the ensuing repression from the standing army and Arab militias sparked the world's biggest humanitarian relief effort.

"I think in some ways it has continued to deteriorate in the sense that there's still displacement going on, there's still violence. I think it's not, in many cases, an emergency," Holmes told reporters.

"People are reasonably well settled in these camps. Unfortunately that's a problem in itself but people are not dying of starvation.

"The problem is that people have been in camps four or five years now, how do you tackle that problem...how long can we go on like this?" asked the U.N. supremo on humanitarian aid.

On Thursday, the U.N. launched a formal appeal for $1.56 billion from donors to bankroll aid work in Sudan that is expected to cost a total of $2.2 billion in 2009.

"This is a billion-dollar operation to help two-thirds of the population of Darfur. We need to find some solutions quickly so that we don't have to go on doing this indefinitely," said Holmes.

Asked how long he felt the international community could continue to fund the operation, Holmes said: "You can't put a timescale on it. It depends on the generosity of the donors, which has been there so far. But that generosity has its limits."