Accused War Criminal Assures World: Everything A-OK in Darfur

Fun Sudan fact - President Omar Bashir is not the only accused war criminal in the government.   In 2007, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Ahmed Haroun, the former Sudanese State Minister for the Interior, charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

In a rather touching display of irony, Haroun is now the State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs.  Because, really, who knows the needs of Darfur better than a man who spent years trying to slaughter as many Darfuris as possible?

Anyhows, all the more reason to trust Haroun when he announces that everything in Darfur will be just fine.   Thank god. Glad that's settled, then.

Haroun is counting on aid agencies from Arab and Asian countries to fill the gaps.  Which is fine in the medium to long-term, but doesn't quite address the immediate crisis, especially seeing as how it actually takes quite a bit of time to hire staff, establish logistics and communication, and begin operations.

Emma Batha's recent article on Reuters AlertNet - Expulsions plunge Sudan relief efforts into chaos - explains just how difficult it will be to resume humanitarian operations.

According to Batha:

"Aid workers say the Sudanese authorities have seized computers, vehicles, medical records and life-saving drugs, meaning they cannot hand them over to relief groups still on the ground. Some agencies say they have had funds frozen as well.

'Everything is crazy. Most of the agencies thrown out don't think they're going to get back so they're trying to work out how to transfer everything to agencies still in Sudan,' said one aid worker who asked to remain anonymous. 'Thousands of local staff in Darfur got made redundant literally overnight, and they've all got families to feed - so we're trying to find them new jobs.

'We're also all going to have to transfer funding to agencies still there. Donors are going to have to be very flexible. And we're trying to do this without any of the in-country records, because all our computers got seized - so project budgets, staffing, everything is lost. It's completely overwhelming.'"

Or, as the World Food Program so elegantly described the situation: "Unless the [expelled] NGOs are allowed to resume their activities, people are going to go hungry."

(Also see this McClatchy article describing how the expulsions will impact health services in Darfur.)

In other Darfur news:

- Kidnappers are demanding a ransom for the three MSF-Belgium staff they captured in North Darfur earlier this week.  Thirsty Palmetto summarizes the current situation thusly: "It is open season on humanitarians, have fun."

- Danger Room has an interesting post about the difficulties - legal and logistic - of imposing a no-fly zone on Darfur.

- For the most recent UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Humanitarian Action Bulletin for Darfur, see here.  The World Health Organization is also tracking health services (or the current lack thereof) in Darfur.

[Women in Zam Zam camp in North Darfur - Photo from the Huffington Post]