German aid group halts Darfur work after threats
By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A German aid group said on Wednesday it was halting most of its work in Sudan's Darfur region after armed gangs threatened to kill staff and seven truckloads of emergency food were stolen.
Welthungerhilfe was the latest in a series of organisations to suspend work, saying staff were increasingly the target of attacks in Darfur, the scene of the world's largest humanitarian operation.
"The risk to our staff is simply too high," said Johan van der Kamp, regional director of Bonn-based Welthungerhilfe, also known as German Agro Action.
"Five weeks ago, relief organisations were not a target of attacks in this area. Now things have changed," he said in a statement.
Law and order has collapsed in Darfur, where international experts say 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes in more than five years of fighting. Khartoum says Western media have exaggerated the conflict and puts the number of dead at 10,000.
The latest figures issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 10 aid workers were killed between January and July in Darfur, compared with 11 for the whole of 2007. A total of 74 aid compounds were attacked in the same period, it added.
The head of OCHA's Darfur unit, Antoine Gerard, said in a statement one aid group had withdrawn from Darfur altogether in 2008, while many others had evacuated staff and temporarily shut down operations during crises.
"There are more than 80 humanitarian organisations here and you have to admire them for their determination to stay in the face of everything from bureaucratic obstacles to attacks," he said.
Welthungerhilfe had stopped delivering emergency food to 450,000 people in remote parts north Darfur because it had become too dangerous send out trucks, van der Kamp told Reuters.
Instead, it had decided to focus on smaller communities living in the area's few towns and displacement camps, he said.
Staff had been held up by armed gangs in the past five weeks while seven trucks loaded with food for people living in rebel areas had been stolen, van der Kamp added.
The U.N. World Food Programme said in March an increase in attacks on its convoys had forced it to halve deliveries of emergency food aid in Darfur.
KHARTOUM, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A German aid group said on Wednesday it was halting most of its work in Sudan's Darfur region after armed gangs threatened to kill staff and seven truckloads of emergency food were stolen.
Welthungerhilfe was the latest in a series of organisations to suspend work, saying staff were increasingly the target of attacks in Darfur, the scene of the world's largest humanitarian operation.
"The risk to our staff is simply too high," said Johan van der Kamp, regional director of Bonn-based Welthungerhilfe, also known as German Agro Action.
"Five weeks ago, relief organisations were not a target of attacks in this area. Now things have changed," he said in a statement.
Law and order has collapsed in Darfur, where international experts say 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes in more than five years of fighting. Khartoum says Western media have exaggerated the conflict and puts the number of dead at 10,000.
The latest figures issued by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 10 aid workers were killed between January and July in Darfur, compared with 11 for the whole of 2007. A total of 74 aid compounds were attacked in the same period, it added.
The head of OCHA's Darfur unit, Antoine Gerard, said in a statement one aid group had withdrawn from Darfur altogether in 2008, while many others had evacuated staff and temporarily shut down operations during crises.
"There are more than 80 humanitarian organisations here and you have to admire them for their determination to stay in the face of everything from bureaucratic obstacles to attacks," he said.
Welthungerhilfe had stopped delivering emergency food to 450,000 people in remote parts north Darfur because it had become too dangerous send out trucks, van der Kamp told Reuters.
Instead, it had decided to focus on smaller communities living in the area's few towns and displacement camps, he said.
Staff had been held up by armed gangs in the past five weeks while seven trucks loaded with food for people living in rebel areas had been stolen, van der Kamp added.
The U.N. World Food Programme said in March an increase in attacks on its convoys had forced it to halve deliveries of emergency food aid in Darfur.
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