West Darfur in the "hungry season"

I have just spent time in El Geneina in West Darfur to conduct a Nutrition and Food Security assessment. The rainy season has finished and the crops are not yet harvested. It is the “hungry season”.

Despite a spate of kidnappings of aid workers, and the reduction of aid workers in the region, down from 700 in January 2009 to 400 in August, joint United Nations and African Union (UNAMID – United Nations-African Mission in Darfur) has announced that a safe environment for aid workers is crucial to any resolution to the Darfur conflict. The Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) says most of the abductions have been carried out by bandits seeking ransom. Consequently, many aid workers rarely work outside the main cities.

The acceleration of attacks on aid workers could have a devastating impact on getting emergency relief, health and nutrition information, and small aid projects to many Darfuris.

My work took me to three World Relief/Global Relief Alliance operational areas: Azerni, Sanidadi, and Um Tajok, a distance of between 20-110 kilometres from the capital of West Darfur, El Geneina. It is hot, dry, dusty, but with an expanse of greenery in some areas that received recent, but inadequate, rain. Locusts and birds are eating the meagre local crops – groundnut, millet and sorghum. When harvest time arrives next month, no-one is expecting a good crop.

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