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Darfur Crisis

Our difficulty in finding the appropriate peacekeeping force—the African Union is not in a position to provide a sufficiently robust on-the-ground presence—is an indictment of the international community. We have so often talked of Africa sorting out its own problems; here, in many ways, is an example of Africa attempting to sort out its own problems, yet we have not provided the resources, the back-up or the resilience that would have enabled the African Union troops to manage the situation without giving rise to the questions that we now face. I do not want to take up too much time, but let me quickly turn to two more issues, both of which have to do with aid. International donors are standing in line to offer recovery aid to Darfur. I raise a note of caution, not about the amount of recovery aid or the need for it, but about its timing. My concern springs from various conversations with non-governmental organisations in the area, who pointed out to me that sequencing matters. We must not attempt to bring in aid before there has been disarmament, before issues such as compensation are agreed on and the Fur are tied into those agreements, or before the issue of forced land ownership has been resolved. Hon. Members will know that many people have been displaced and land has been occupied, particularly in west Darfur, which has some agricultural potential. There is fear that recovery aid would lock in that occupation, rather than deal with the issue of who owns that land. We have not tackled the issues of tribe-on-tribe violence or most issues of extortion—““self-protection payments”” would be the language that we would use if it was happening on our streets—and that needs to be resolved before recovery aid is moved in. The Government have not yet lifted their unofficial embargo on trade outside the main towns. I just wanted to sound a note of caution about the overall situation and get the Government’s comments on that. There is real fear that if recovery aid is brought in, people who are displaced will return to their villages, although they are unsafe, and rebuild them, that new livestock will be provided and that people will then merely become a magnet for yet another attack. So I raise the issue of the preconditions, and ask the Government how they intend to approach that set of issues. Humanitarian aid is obviously an entirely different matter and is desperately needed. We were all shocked to find out that only 20 per cent. of the UN’s appeal had been funded, and that the World Food Programme had to cut rations by 50 per cent. We understand that food stocks in the country are very low, and that the only way to get large amounts of food in now could be through airlifts, which are extremely costly. I have been told by people that the World Food Programme has done an excellent and very much unsung job in distributing food, despite the violence. In light of what has been happening in Darfur, the very fact that the WFP has been able to reach out to remote areas and reduce malnutrition rates is entirely to its credit. However, we are entering the hungry season, and as Members will know, that is not only when food stocks are at their lowest, but also when most energy is needed to cultivate the next harvest, which will be in September. Some might say that we should fill the gap with aid, but it seems to take some five months between a pledge of aid to Darfur being made and food being delivered on the ground. The World Food Programme was telling people as early as January that the crisis was coming, and it pointed to the timetable, but aid has been slow to arrive. Although I congratulate the Government on putting in another £9 million, that was in May, and the question is whether we will have a far more significant crisis on our hands by the time that money is available on the ground. I have a couple of questions about that for the Secretary of State. First, he is one of the architects of the United Nations emergency relief fund, but where are its representatives in Darfur now? Secondly, he is one of the architects of a co-ordinated approach to aid, which, in Darfur, takes the form of the UN common humanitarian fund. Those on the ground tell me that that approach seems a positive idea, but that the bureaucratic layers that have been added to the process have delayed aid distribution to such an extent that we face a potential crisis over the next several months, until new aid, as it were, turns into food or cultivated crops provide in-country resources.