Aid Agencies Face Increasing Odds in Sudan

Sudan, the largest of African nations, is currently proving a massive problem for international aid organizations operating in the country.

Agencies are struggling to manage a humanitarian situation that long since passed into crisis. Tens of thousands are already dead; a million displaced persons are in refugee camps or trekking through dangerous territory to reach one with the specter of rape, torture and murder potentially lurking in every patch of parched scrub; and there's a real threat of famine and disease.

The unfolding events in the hardest hit province of Darfur in the west of Sudan finally broke into the world's consciousness in 2004, after years of simmering intent. Now the numerous relief organizations on the ground work as best they can to help those who are the victims of not only the violence in their country but the inaction of the international community.

The task at hand can hardly be underestimated. While long-term plans are formulated, the organizations do what they can to bring immediate relief to the suffering. But many face barriers both physical and political in the quest to help.

In the fluid and unstable nature of the country they operate in, many have completely different stories to tell, highlighting the paradoxical nature of Sudan in crisis.

Government cooperation

The 18-months combined auxiliary program of German aid organizations Diakonie Kastrophenhilfe and Caritas International is currently focused on distributing plastic tarpaulins, covers and mosquito nets as well as promoting hygiene.

From the office in Nyala, in southern Darfur, the joint action team believes 500,000 people can be helped, and Gesine Wolfinger, spokeswoman for Diakonie, is confident that the distribution of aid will go ahead by working closely with the local authorities.

"In Nyala, one must register as an organization with the Humanitarian Assistance Commission in the presence of officials from the Sudanese government. We have done so and have spoken with a responsible representative of the government in Darfur. The government places a lot of emphasis on cooperation and is keen to allow access to the refugees," Wolfinger told DW-RADIO.

Fluid nature of security threatens aid work

For others, contacts with the Sudanese government are more problematic. The willingness to cooperate is not always as forthcoming as Wolfinger has experienced. German organization Deutschen Welthungerhilfe has struggled to cope in the town of Kutum in northern Darfur, where the population grew from 12,000 to 100,000 people in just a few weeks as wave after wave of refugees headed to this relatively safe enclave.

The organization has resources to care for about 90,000 people and has been a well-established and dependable presence in the area since 1998. However, its work has suffered by impediments put in its way by the Sudanese government.

"There are accessible areas in Darfur and then there are so-called no-go areas which appear very suddenly. The areas in which you work can suddenly be barricaded with no more access from outside," said Manfred Hochwald, an area leader for programs and projects with Deutschen Welthungerhilfe, who added that these changing boundaries can be deadly for the people of Darfur.

"In western Darfur, there are areas where nobody has ever entered, neither relief organizations nor representatives of the United Nations, Hochwald said. The population figures in that area are between 100,000 people and maybe 500,000 people who can not be reached at all. And they have nothing. Those who live in the camps in the accessible areas are well cared for. They can still be supplied at the moment. But no one can know when the lines will change again."

Agencies their own worst enemy at times

While the authorities and the war-like situation within the country can hinder the aid operations, some organizations themselves have contributed to the problem of getting in the way of the important work. There has been criticism within the country that some organizations have come to Darfur, completed preliminary studies, promised to return to set up projects but never have come back.

Marina Peter from Sudan Focal Point Europe has heard similar things in southern Sudan. "The people there complain very bitterly that one organization after the other comes and questions them and is never heard from again. The people feel very used," she said.

Peters believes that unawareness of the position on the ground, lack of intercultural knowledge and the poor organization of many agencies are the reasons that the aid effort is not coping with many of Darfur's problems. The lack of coordination is striking.

"The problem is -- as is the nature and principle of aid agencies -- no one organization is higher than the other. But that is what relief organizations need. Each relief organization makes its own assessment and from that, there ought to be one (assessment) that they all can use."