UNITED NATIONS, July 7 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday told the Security Council he would like to see a resolution on Sudan's western Darfur region speedily approved, calling the situations for displaced persons in Sudan and refugees in neighboring Chad extremely serious.
In a satellite teleconference call from Nairobi, Kenya, to U.N. World Headquarters in New York, Annan said he wanted to bring an end to the deadly violence and ethnic displacement wracking the area. He just visited Sudan and its neighbor to the west, Chad.
The secretary-general described the situation in Chad as "totally intolerable," according to U.N. Undersecretary-General Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, who accompanied Annan.
However, Egeland returned to headquarters to attend the panel of 15's private consultations on the crisis while Annan continued his visit to Africa. Egeland also briefed the envoys on his experiences.
The undersecretary-general told reporters what the secretary-general informed the council -- that Annan wants a resolution as soon as possible and with concrete detail and he would like to help ensure that armed, government-allied Janjaweed militias stop attacking villages and killing and raping civilians.
The emergency relief coordinator also warned of a potentially massive death toll if Khartoum does not take steps to end the fighting against two rebel groups and to disarm and demobilize the mainly Arab militias.
"It is so vulnerable now that if there is an outbreak of renewed fighting, the whole program of our humanitarian lifeline will fold immediately, and hundreds of thousands of people may die," he said.
Before Annan left Sudan Saturday, the government and the United Nations issued a joint statement in which Khartoum pledged to undertake a series of measures, including disarming the militias, bringing the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice, and removing any obstacles to humanitarian access.
In briefing notes obtained by United Press International, Annan said he went to the scene not only to see for himself the conditions, but to "assess the progress made in the international humanitarian effort." He wanted to stress to Sudan's President Omar El Bashir "and other Sudanese officials the need for them to take urgent measures to address the crisis in all its aspects." He also intended to express the readiness of the world organization and the international community to work with the government to deal with the crisis and explore ways to do it.
"The situation of the internally displaced people in Darfur and of the Sudanese refugees in Chad is indeed grave," the secretary-general said in his notes.
"Too many of the internally displaced, in particular, live in sub-human conditions - with inadequate food shelter, water, medicine and other basic supplies," said Annan. "They also live in constant fear for their lives, in the face of continuing attacks and harassment by the Janjaweed (Khartoum-backed militia) and other armed groups. The civilian population outside the major towns and camps are particularly vulnerable to such attacks."
For months, U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations have complained of restrictions hampering their attempts to bring relief to Darfur's internally displaced, who are now estimated to have swelled in number to 1.2 million. Between 150,000 and 200,000 refugees have fled to Chad and at least 800,000 other people need emergency food aid.
Welcoming the promised removal of those obstacles, Egeland said that humanitarian workers still need better security and more funding to do their work. U.N. agencies and NGOs have reported this week that military officials have searched some aid workers and looted their possessions. Four vehicles went missing in just the last week.
Funding also presents a problem, he said.
U.N. agencies have received less than $140 million of the $350 million they say is the minimum needed to provide food rations, clean water, sanitation and other relief supplies to 2 million people until at least the end of this year. Trucks, helicopters and airplanes to transport food are also required.
"Many of the distances the trucks have to travel are as long as from one end of Western Europe to the other, but on very poor roads," Egeland said in his own briefing notes. "It takes 15 days for a truck to drive" across Sudan from Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
He called for 300 additional trucks, including 100 all-terrain vehicles.
"It is a logistical nightmare for us to help them, (and) it would be ironic now, when we have access finally, that we would be unable to save lives because we only have 40 percent of what we've asked for," Egeland said.
Humanitarian agencies say the depletion of firewood around the dozens of camps for internally displaced people in Darfur is forcing women to travel further away from the relative safety of the camps to collect wood for cooking. Many women say they are reluctant to travel far because of the threat of rapes and other violent assaults by the Janjaweed.
Marie Okabe, a U.N. spokeswoman at headquarters, said humanitarian agencies have also begun reporting outbreaks of fighting in north Darfur between government troops and the militias.
