9-17-06, 8:18 am

EL FASHER, 15 Sep 2006 (IRIN) - Rampant insecurity in North Darfur State is preventing aid agencies from distributing food and stopping many farmers from planting crops. The result is very precarious food security, aid workers warn.

'The lack of access, due to insecurity as a result of fighting, banditry and hijackings, is the most important humanitarian concern right now. It is leading to a drop in service provision, more displacement, and a total lack of predictability,' Niels Scott, head of the regional Darfur office of the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), told IRIN.

'Villagers are at risk not only of being attacked but also of losing their livelihoods - both these dangers can cause displacement,' the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a recent statement. 'Many people in rural areas are facing hardship as a result of blocked migration routes, lack of access to markets and healthcare services, and insufficient water for both humans and animals in places where large numbers of livestock congregate.'

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that 355,000 people in North Darfur had been cut off from food aid last month. For most, it was the third consecutive month that fighting and banditry had prevented food from reaching them. The situation is compounded by the fact that Darfur is at the height of the 'hunger season' - the period right before the next harvest when food stocks have run out and high prices prevent many people from buying food at the market.

But even the upcoming harvest season might bring little relief as insecurity has prevented many farmers from cultivating their fields.

'The effect on food production might be exacerbated by the fact that a lot of the new displacement took place in the very fertile areas, not in the arid areas,' Scott said. Community leader Sheikh Adam Ishac fled Hilla Babikir and surrounding villages with 300 families after an attack by government forces, which were trying to flush out rebels from the area north of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. They arrived in El Salaam camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of El Fasher about 40 days ago - leaving behind their planted fields.

'We have planted our crops, but the problem is that nobody is doing the weeding - we’re trying to get some people to go in and out quickly when the fighting dies down - we still hope to harvest in January,' Ishac said.

'Normally we have an early harvest in September-October of tomatoes, eggplants, okra [squash], cucumber, and watermelons, but nobody has planted these crops. We have the seeds, but the war didn’t allow us to cultivate these crops this year,' he added. The security situation has deteriorated rapidly since the signing of the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) between the Sudanese government and the largest of the three main rebel factions, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), under the command of Minni Minnawi.

Violence has been widespread due to the fragmentation of rebel groups and escalating fighting between the signatories and rebel groups that refused to sign the peace deal, claiming it did not meet their basic demands of power-sharing and compensation for about three million victims of the war. Banditry and general lawlessness are rife and militias, rebel groups and government forces have clashed regularly.

Twelve humanitarian workers have been killed in Darfur since May - more than the total number since the conflict began in early 2003.

António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned last week that millions of people were already at risk. 'Hundreds are still dying amid ongoing violence, and thousands are still being forcibly displaced. Urgent international action is needed to put pressure on the parties to the conflict and to convince everyone involved on the ground to let humanitarian agencies safely carry out their work,' he said. 'Lives depend on it. If things don't improve, we're heading for a major catastrophe.'

UN agencies and NGOs - in collaboration with the Sudanese Ministry of Health - are assessing emergency food security needs to determine how the lack of access has affected the population.

'We are obviously very concerned,' Emilia Casella, WFP spokeswoman in Khartoum, said. 'We can’t even get to them to monitor what their actual situation is.'

Dar El Salam

Dar El Salam, a rebel-controlled area just south of El Fasher, is one of the safer regions in North Darfur State. It has not been directly affected by the three-year conflict; there has been no mass displacement and the relatively fertile soil usually guarantees a decent harvest.

Nevertheless, a recent nutritional survey found a malnutrition rate of 27 percent, considerably higher than the emergency threshold of 15 percent.

'Seasonal malnutrition has been a long-term development issue in this region,' Beatrice Mounier, medico-nutrition coordinator for the NGO Action Contre le Faim (ACF), said to explain the high numbers. 'The people are very poor and dependent on their crops and hence the weather. Access to healthcare and clean water is also very poor, leading to many cases of diarrhoea during the rainy season.'

An observer in El Fasher, however, who asked not to be named, said indirect consequences of the conflict had undermined people’s coping mechanisms and contributed to the high malnutrition rates in Dar El Salam.

'The lack of maintenance of existing water points is a direct result of the conflict,' he said. 'Insecurity has also blocked access to markets in El Fasher and Nyala [the capital of South Darfur].'

Dar El Salam usually produces cash crops, such as tobacco and groundnuts, which bring in much-needed income to supplement people’s subsistence farming.

'What it means is that local prices of cash crops were much lower, because they couldn’t be exported - reducing the value of growing these crops as an alternative coping mechanism,' the observer added.

Patrick Andrey, ACF programme coordinator for North Darfur, observed that the high malnutrition rates in this region, which had experienced relatively favourable conditions, did not bode well for much dryer areas that were inaccessible to aid workers and had been blighted by the war.

'And the malnutrition rates we’re seeing now still relate to the relatively good harvest of last year,' he added. 'In the current context, the biggest concern is that many people have not been able to plant this year at all - and what that means for next year,' he warned.

The situation farther north

In the arid areas farther north in North Darfur State - predominantly controlled by the rebel coalition of the National Redemption Army (NRF) that refused to sign the DPA - access has been minimal and humanitarian organisations are desperately trying to find out what the effect has been on the local population.

'We haven’t been able to access any of these areas since April-May, and many used to receive food assistance,' one aid worker said. 'I’m very concerned - we’re talking about 250,000 people who haven’t received food.'

Most people in this area are pastoralists, who cultivate on a relatively small scale and sell their camels at the markets of Kutum, Mallit and El Fasher town, while others take their animals all the way to Libya.

'We haven’t seen many people of these areas at the markets over the past three to four months,' the aid worker observed. 'To reach the markets further south, they would have to move with all their animals through insecure areas and they’re afraid they will be looted.'

Although he had very limited information about the impact on cultivation, the aid worker said the main clashes in the northern region had occurred when people would normally attend to their fields.

'We expect that planting has been limited this year due to the fighting,' he said. 'In the end, it means that much more food will be needed and that people will depend on food aid throughout next year.'

Ongoing fighting

Zam-Zam, a camp near El Fasher, houses 40,000 IDPs, who have mostly fled from villages from the fertile belt southwest of El Fasher. The villages have been attacked - and sometimes razed to the ground - during various waves of fighting throughout the course of the three-year conflict.

Inside Zam-Zam, an SLM/A commander of Minnawi’s faction told IRIN that many people in the camp had initially planned to go back to their villages to cultivate. 'When they saw all the recent movement of government troops, however, they were afraid another war was starting and they decided not to plant.

Aid workers say they are seriously concerned about a potential influx of another 40,000 IDPs into Zam-Zam camp. 'All humanitarian aid agencies pulled out of the area west of Tabit and south of Tawilla [60 km southwest of El Fasher town] due to insecurity - it is the height of the hunger season and the last food distribution that people in that area received was in July,' one aid worker warned.

'We might be heading towards a humanitarian catastrophe here,' Scott warned. The recent movement of as many as 50 NRF vehicles into the area of Tawilla has sparked rumours of an impending escalation of violence that would throw the volatile region back into turmoil once again.

On Wednesday, NRF rebels clashed with government forces south of Tawilla. An Antonov plane and two helicopter gunships reportedly bombed Dobo Al Umda Dobo and Dobo Al Madrasa town and the surrounding villages. The number of casualties is unknown.

'If a United Nations force is not deployed soon, something much worse is going to happen here,' the SLM/A commander added.

'Fewer and fewer NGOs are willing to go into the field. Already, many of the gains that had been made are being lost: health problems are starting to re-emerge and water sources are breaking down - we might be going back to zero,' an aid worker warned.

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