Hundreds of thousands of lives will be at risk in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur area, if aid to the region is cut as a result of increased violence, United Nations envoy Jan Egeland said on Monday.
Egeland, who is the U.N. undersecretary-general responsible for relief operations, urged a political solution be sought in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
He warned that the situation in Darfur might spiral into a “man-made catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.”
The increasing fighting in Sudan has targeted aid workers as well as locals, resulting in the deaths of nine aid workers in July. The U.N. is concerned this will cause aid organizations to pull out their employees.
During a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, United States Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton called for the deployment of 17,000 peacekeepers in Darfur.
Khartoum has repeatedly opposed this notion, rejecting what it sees as foreign meddling.
The U.N. wants to deploy some 20,000 troops in Darfur, to replace 7,000 troops of the African Union, which has largely been unable to control the raging violence in the region.
Sudanese president ‘Umar Al-Bashir declined to meet with senior U.S. diplomat Jendayi Frazer on Monday. Frazer’s visit was intended to press Al-Bashir into accepting a U.N. peacekeeping force, but the meeting was canceled due to what the president’s office claimed was his “crowded schedule.”
Frazer conveyed her message to the president to an adviser.
Some 180,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict and more than two million have been displaced. The conflict started in 2003 and largely involves control over natural resources, including oil.