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The crisis in Darfur has sharply deteriorated over the last few months because of an increase in violence, a senior United Nations official said yesterday.
Craig Sanders, head of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Sudan and Chad, said: "The severity of the attacks and their frequency is increasing and we are concerned how things are going to shake out." He told a press conference in London after meeting British officials that the violence "is being done with much greater subtlety and sophistication than we have seen before".
The optimism of the summer, when some of the refugees and displaced people began returning home after two years of fighting, has given way to renewed pessimism, he said.
Up to two million people have been displaced by the fighting and resulting famine in Darfur, with the biggest exodus taking place at the end of 2003 and early last year. The Sudanese government has been accused, by the US and others, of covertly supporting an ethnic cleansing campaign by Arab-based militias against African farmers.
Tens of thousands more people have been forced from their home over the last month to swell the already strained camps run by aid agencies in Darfur or across the border in Chad.
Oxfam reported yesterday that 20,000 new people have arrived during recent weeks at one camp alone, Gereida, in southern Darfur.
Mr Sanders' bleak assessment was supported by the Foreign Office. A spokesman said yesterday: "We remain concerned about the recent deterioration of security in Darfur."
There was a sudden increase in violence in September and October, and this escalated in November. Mr Sanders blamed the rise on rebel groups, the government-backed Janjaweed militia and, to some extent, the government. Mr Sanders said: "There are various concerns, in this climate of impunity, about the extent to which these incidents are followed through by the government of Sudan."
Crops and villages were being deliberately destroyed to make it difficult for the displaced to return. He said: "There is a window of opportunity in Darfur but that window is closing, and closing rapidly." He added: "The longer this goes on and the longer people are away from their livelihoods, the more protracted the conflict becomes."
Although the aid agencies have helped cut malnutrition and mortality rates in the camps, many of the roads used to supply camps are regarded as unsafe because of bandits, rebels and other fighters, and some of the agencies have withdrawn.
Malcolm Fleming, a spokesman for Oxfam, said: "Oxfam has to use UN helicopters to get to at least half the camps in which we work." He added: "The security situation in Darfur is not improving. Thousands of people still face the threat of horrific violence each day. Humanitarian agencies are increasingly being targeted in violent banditry and looting incidents, and fresh clashes between government and rebel forces continue to destabilise large parts of Darfur."
The UN, instead of committing a full UN force to monitor a largely ignored ceasefire, provide protection for the camps and try to establish peace, passed responsibility to the African Union, which has a force of about 7,000 in Darfur.
Mr Sanders said the presence of the AU troops had helped but they were under-equipped, and tended to patrol the camp perimeters during the day while most of the attacks took place at night. Mr Fleming said: "AU helicopters and vehicles in Darfur routinely run out of fuel ... and some soldiers barely have enough ammunition to defend themselves, never mind aid operations or civilians under threat."
Five AU soldiers were wounded in an attack on Tuesday by a rebel group, south of Kulbus, near the border with Chad. Three were in a serious condition and were flown to Khartoum for treatment.
Darfur, after receiving a lot of media attention last year, now receives much less. The government has refused visas for many journalists to visit. There has been a drop in financial support for the UNHCR's work, partly because attention has switched elsewhere.
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