And All the While People Die

Humanitarian aid in Darfur is still under attack. Two more aid workers have been kidnapped and many more live in constant fear. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) intends to address this problem, but is this enough?

Humanitarian aid groups are threatened.

With the second incident of kidnapping of aid workers and the violence erupting in Darfur due to lack of supplies, humanitarian workers in the region are under constant threat and having a hard time providing sufficient aid to the people of Darfur. They are without sufficient personnel and funding, and are watching their collective efforts deteriorate before their eyes. If the situation is not addressed soon, there may be up to 1.5 million displaced people in danger of starvation and/or death by disease.

Currently, the aid groups are being blamed for collaborating with the ICC in its successful effort to indict Omar Al-Bashir, Sudan's head-of-state, on war crimes and issue a warrant for his arrest. This has led the Sudanese government to cease cooperation with international aid groups. They are delaying the acceptance of new groups and, indirectly causing the deterioration of an already unstable situation.

On the 4th of this month, two Aide Medicale Internationale workers from Canada and France were kidnapped at gunpoint. This is the second in what seems to be a series of abductions of aid workers. They were taken overnight from their compound in Ed El-Fursan. The kidnappers demand $200 USD for the safe return of the hostages.

The expulsion of the 13 groups and the threats to remaining ones has left the people of Darfur helpless and desperate. The international community has condemned the expulsions, but Sudan is unwilling to budge and does not seem to be caving to the pressure. If anything, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir is flaunting his freedom and his allegiances to the rest of the world. Yet again, he is allowing genocide by attrition to consume the Darfuri population.

What is the next move?

A U.S. Special Envoy was sent to the region to assess the situation. One envoy member, Scott Gration, said the expelled groups are not likely to return and that they need to focus their efforts in three ways:

• By building up the existing groups.


• Through recruiting and funding new groups, especially ones from Arab nations and Western Nations in good relations with Sudan.


• And by speeding up the visa processes for current aid groups applying to enter Sudan.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) announced on Friday that they have a plan to send "urgent and continued aid services" to the region. They plan to help rebuild the war-torn western regions and to help refugees return home. To accomplish this they want to coordinate cooperation between the Muslim NGOs in Darfur and the UN's expelled aid groups. There are 25 Muslim aid groups currently in the region that are based in OIC member countries. This is nearly 20% of all existing aid in Darfur, and coordination of this 20% with outside sources could produce very promising results. The OIC, however, is also in full support of Al-Bashir's defiance of the ICC. They believe it was a poor move on the international community's part. Hopefully their plan can make up for this divergence in arguments which has left a third party, the Darfuri people, caught in the middle and left in a very vulnerable situation.