SUDAN: Urgent support is needed to prevent the loss of more lives in Darfur, writes David Andrews
The scale of the worsening humanitarian disaster in Sudan is hard for most people to grasp.
The EU and UN institutions were slow to move and the Sudanese are right not to accept western troops. If troops are to be sent in they should be from the African Union.
How many times have we heard of people being uprooted from their homes, forced to flee across borders, dying of hunger and disease, waiting for international aid to come to their rescue? The figures don't convey the full horror of mothers watching their children wilting away and dying from something as simple as diarrhoea, of families losing their homes, their livestock and their relatives.
Getting across the message is difficult in the context of a tense international situation, involving political and diplomatic leaders worldwide, and an apparent deadlock over who is responsible for this latest disaster in Africa and how it can be resolved.
A million people are now homeless - some 200,000 of these having made their way to refugee camps across Sudan's border with Chad - and 10,000 people have died, according to the latest figures.
Our job in the Red Cross and the Red Crescent movement worldwide is to get the aid to people like little Mubarrak Timan who at three years of age faces severe malnourishment after suffering diarrhoea for four days at the Oure Cassoni refugee camp in Chad. And to Hadija Yusuf Ishak, who has two children in hospital in Iriba camp and broke down as she recalls that they were "so thin they could hardly move".
When we look at figures, we must not forget the faces of the people - children, parents, farmers, traders. It is so easy to hear about a "humanitarian disaster" and not appreciate the individual horror that this means.
To date the Irish Red Cross has raised in excess of €225,000. But the International Committee of the Red Cross says that the growing need in Darfur means that its operation there is now its largest one worldwide.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement need just under €60 million for our two partner international organisations. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) needs just over €50 million to run operations within Sudan, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC) needs €10 million to deal with the refugee crisis in Chad.
Within Sudan the ICRC, which specialises in working in areas of conflict, has despatched a convoy of 27 trucks and light vehicles to Darfur, carrying over 100 tonnes of food and medical supplies to the people who remain in the region, but whose homes have been destroyed or abandoned.
The Sudanese Red Crescent Society are working with the ICRC to distribute some of these supplies along the 2,000 km of difficult terrain through which it is travelling.
In neighbouring Chad, media reports indicate a remarkable level of hospitality shown by the people there to the tens of thousands of refugees who arrive weekly. Despite having little - certainly by comparison with ourselves - the people of Chad have been willing to share their food and shelter with these refugees.
But they cannot do it alone and the cumulative strength of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from around the world is supporting the Chadian people through the Chad Red Cross.
Since last December, the number of people pouring into Chad, seeking refuge from the fighting in Darfur, has doubled. This upsurge in demand has been met with the provision of tented housing and basic medical and food supplies.
New challenges, however, now face the Red Cross in Chad with the onset of the rainy season and the assessment that the conflict in Darfur does not show any immediate signs of ending, meaning that more and more people will continue to need help.
Even if the political and diplomatic impasse is resolved, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC) believes that the situation "will not be resolved in the short term" and that needs in both eastern Chad and western Sudan "will remain serious through the greater part of 2005".
Donations can be sent to: The Irish Red Cross Sudan Appeal, 16 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. Credit card donations are welcome using a secure online donations facility at www.redcross.ie or by telephone to our CallSave number 1850 50 70 70.
David Andrews is chairman of the Irish Red Cross and former Minister for Foreign Affairs