UNHCR head pleads for UN action to avert Darfur disaster

UNHCR head pleads for UN action to avert Darfur disaster

UNITED – The head of the UN refugee agency on Tuesday appealed to the Security Council to act forcefully to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region and in neighbouring Chad.

“Today, violence and impunity … are again everyday occurrences in Darfur.”said UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres.”And the insecurity has now spread across the border into Chad.”He said the increased instability in the border area, which is home to 200 000 refugees, had forced the UNHCR to relocate part of its staff “The international community could face a catastrophe in Darfur.Averting it will require bold measures and the full involvement of the African Union (AU) and the UN,” Guterres told the Security Council.While hailing the efforts of the AU to bring about a settlement between Khartoum and Darfur rebels, he said that unfortunately “the situation has taken a turn for the worse” with peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria at an impasse.To reach a peace accord “we need the full commitment of the council and all its members working together in support of peace and putting pressure on all the parties involved.Who can defy you if you act together?” he asked.Last week, the two Darfur rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced in N’djamena that they were merging to create a single alliance.Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 between black rebel groups and the Khartoum government, supported by Arab Janjaweed militias.It is estimated to have cost some 300 000 lives and displaced more than two million refugees.Guterres meanwhile cited the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region as another major humanitarian challenge for the world community.UN troops are in DRC to help the military eliminate various rebel groups and more than a dozen local militias in the east of the country ravaged by 17 years of conflict.”As with Sudan, threats to peace and development in the Great Lakes region do not end with a single country, or two or even three,” Guterres said.”Both Sudan and the DRC underline how crucial it is to employ, and for this body to support, a regional approach to peacekeeping and political missions.”Guterres noted that the killing of eight Guatemalan UN peacekeepers in a firefight with suspected Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in DRC’s northeastern Garamba National Park on Monday “is a clear demonstration of the complexity of the problem we face”.The LRA has waged a bloody war in northern Uganda since 1988, ostensibly to replace President Yoweri Museveni’s government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.- Nampa-AFPare again everyday occurrences in Darfur.”said UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres.”And the insecurity has now spread across the border into Chad.”He said the increased instability in the border area, which is home to 200 000 refugees, had forced the UNHCR to relocate part of its staff “The international community could face a catastrophe in Darfur.Averting it will require bold measures and the full involvement of the African Union (AU) and the UN,” Guterres told the Security Council.While hailing the efforts of the AU to bring about a settlement between Khartoum and Darfur rebels, he said that unfortunately “the situation has taken a turn for the worse” with peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria at an impasse.To reach a peace accord “we need the full commitment of the council and all its members working together in support of peace and putting pressure on all the parties involved.Who can defy you if you act together?” he asked.Last week, the two Darfur rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced in N’djamena that they were merging to create a single alliance.Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 between black rebel groups and the Khartoum government, supported by Arab Janjaweed militias.It is estimated to have cost some 300 000 lives and displaced more than two million refugees.Guterres meanwhile cited the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region as another major humanitarian challenge for the world community.UN troops are in DRC to help the military eliminate various rebel groups and more than a dozen local militias in the east of the country ravaged by 17 years of conflict.”As with Sudan, threats to peace and development in the Great Lakes region do not end with a single country, or two or even three,” Guterres said.”Both Sudan and the DRC underline how crucial it is to employ, and for this body to support, a regional approach to peacekeeping and political missions.”Guterres noted that the killing of eight Guatemalan UN peacekeepers in a firefight with suspected Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in DRC’s northeastern Garamba National Park on Monday “is a clear demonstration of the complexity of the problem we face”.The LRA has waged a bloody war in northern Uganda since 1988, ostensibly to replace President Yoweri Museveni’s government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.- Nampa-AFP

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