West Sudan: More than 100,000 new refugees since the middle of January: Only UN troops can offer the civilian population adequate protection

Following the renewed escalation of violence in Darfur The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed on Friday to the UN Security Council to send UN peacekeeping troops to the West Sudan. The human rights organisation called for a robust mandate for the UN force to enable them to provide adequate protection of the civilian population and to disarm the Janjaweed militia, which is linked to the Sudanese government. "Three years after the beginning of the genocide in Darfur the international community must at last draw the consequences of its failure to combat this genocide.” The fact that China and Russia reject a UN intervention should not allow the United Nations to continue standing on the sidelines like they did eleven years ago in Ruanda

More than 100,000 people have fled from Darfur in the past two weeks alone as the result of attacks by the Janjaweed or fighting between the freedom movements and the Sudanese army, reported the GfbV correspondent, Ulrich Delius. More than 90 care workers of the international relief organisations have had to leave the area following the fighting in the Golo region (west Darfur), with the result that tens of thousands of refugees are no longer being cared for. Janjaweed militia have attacked eight refugee camps near the town of Mershing since the 22nd January. About 90 percent of the 35,000 people living in these camps have fled. After fighting between freedom fighters and the Sudanese army some 70,000 people have fled the towns of Golo and Daya (west Darfur). In south Darfur also new attacks have taken place. So an attack of the Janjaweed caused 400 women and children to flee from a refugee camp in Sharia.

The UN special emissary for the Sudan, Jan Pronk, recently admitted that the international community had done too little too late to stop the serious crimes against humanity in Darfur. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, called on 25th January for UN peacekeeping troops to be sent to western Sudan. UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, sees likewise no alternative to an operation of the UN peacekeeping forces. Annan warned the Security Council on 25th January to reach a speedy decision on a UN operation, which is "inevitable”. "Every month of delay costs thousands of human lives”, warned the GfbV.