SUDAN: Security in Sudan's Darfur region is worsening, with banditry rife, putting 200,000 people at risk from lack of food and water, a British aid agency said yesterday.
Oxfam said its aid workers could only reach five towns in Darfur by helicopter because its trucks could be ambushed or caught in crossfire between rival armed groups.
"There has been lots of talk over the last year, and commitments from all sides to end abuses, but security in Darfur has not improved. In fact, in the last two months it has started to deteriorate," said its regional director Ms Caroline Nursey.
More than 1.5 million people, mainly African villagers, have been left homeless by rampaging Janjaweed militia and Sudanese security forces. Thousands have been killed. Khartoum has denied backing the Janjaweed.
The UN Security Council has decried the situation in Darfur but has held back from threatening retributive sanctions for fear of provoking the Khartoum government and making matters worse. Several council members refuse to enact any penalties, with China openly warning it would use its veto power.
"Humanitarian access is worse that it was four months ago when the council passed its first resolution," Ms Nursey said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch questioned how the outside world would enforce any deal made by the Sudanese government, whether in Darfur or with its southern opposition.
"While they are sitting here in Nairobi talking, people in Darfur are dying," said spokeswoman Ms Minky Worden. "Unless there is an enforcement mechanism it's meaningless."
Although the Security Council in Nairobi did not concentrate on Darfur, the crisis came up in almost every speech, especially from the UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan, who accused the government and rebels of breaching agreements.
"When crimes on such a scale are being committed and a sovereign state appears unable or unwilling to protect its own citizens, a grave responsibility falls on the international community, and specifically on this council," he said.
Sudanese vice-president Mr Ali Osman Taha rejected the criticism. But Mr John Garang, head of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement, said: "Darfur is rapidly degenerating into chaos and anarchy. The government's policy has seriously boomeranged and continues to spiral out of control."