wfn.org | UMNS# 04535-UMCOR focuses direct aid on Sudan's troubled Darfur

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

UMCOR focuses direct aid on Sudan's troubled Darfur region 

Nov. 16, 2004	 News media contact:   Linda  Green * (615) 7425470* 
Nashville {04535}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. R. Randy Day and other
images are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Linda Beher*

NEW YORK (UMNS)-The United Methodist Committee on Relief, currently serving
Sudanese refugees in Chad, is preparing to provide more direct services to
the Sudan. 

UMCOR will extend its efforts with displaced people inside the violence-torn
Darfur section of Sudan by mid-December.

An investigative team, which spent three weeks in the area for the
denomination's relief agency, found continuing need for basic relief efforts,
for steps to ward off famine and for preparation to help people return to
their homes. UMCOR has become a registered provider of direct services inside
the country. 

The United Nations estimates that 70,000 people have been killed and 1.6
million pushed from their homes by a months-old rampage supported by the
government of Sudan. International efforts to bring a halt to the violence
have been unsuccessful.

Jen Poitras, UMCOR assessment team member, described the killing and plunder
primarily as a land-grab by "pastoral people," most of whom are Arabs,
directed against "agricultural" or settled people, most of whom are African.
The government has backed the Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed. Virtually
all of the people in Darfur are Muslim. 

Poitras explained that Darfur, which is about the size of Texas, has three
regions: north, south and west. Most of the attacks on the settled villages
have been in the west, and survivors have fled into Chad and the southern
region. UMCOR will initially concentrate on the south, with a priority on
distributing essential emergency supplies such as buckets, plastic sheeting,
cooking utensils and soap.

"I am pleased that we were able to send our own investigative team into
Darfur to get a firsthand view of the situation," said the Rev. R. Randy Day,
chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, which
includes UMCOR. 
	
The United Methodist General Conference, the legislative body of the 11
million-member denomination, instructed the mission agency last May to
monitor and report on conditions in Darfur, as well as to provide
humanitarian assistance, Day noted.

The work by UMCOR's investigative team is one of the few independent
inspections being allowed by Sudan's government. Day thanked staff and
friends of UMCOR in relief and diplomatic arenas for helping make the team
possible. 

Most of the refugees in South Darfur have little food or shelter and no way
to cook but seem more afraid of attack, Poitras said.

Along with political violence, Darfur is facing the likelihood of famine in
the near future, she said. The agricultural system has broken down, she said.
Seed, poultry, farm animals and equipment have been lost.   

The southern part of the area, where UMCOR will operate, is seen as a good
staging location for the eventual reintegration of the people of Darfur.

UMCOR will initially make a modest, undisclosed investment in the Darfur
operation. It will solicit additional funds from United Methodists and from
governmental and international donors. 

"We must become even more active in providing assistance and in advocating
for international action to stop the violence," Day said. "We must continue
and increase both humanitarian and diplomatic efforts."

He urged "the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the
United States to intensify efforts aimed at persuading Khartoum to end the
violence and prepare for the return of the refugees."

UMCOR is partnering with an international ecumenical alliance in Chad refugee
camps, where 130,000 Sudanese have fled from their burned and looted
villages. Continuing support by donors will assist the new efforts inside
Darfur. Donors may send their gifts to Advance #184385, Sudan Emergency, in
care of UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. To donate
using a credit card, contributors may call, toll free, (800) 554-8583.

*Beher is communications director for the United Methodist Committee on
Relief.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service