Oxfam calls for more cash aid for Sudan

Date: 02/07/1998

By Mark Turner

THE EU's humanitarian office ECHO is coming under fire from charity workers for not contributing enough to alleviate the unfolding tragedy in Sudan.

Oxfam says that under 14% of the total humanitarian assistance given to the country has come from ECHO, compared to 36% from the US and around 11% each from British and Dutch national coffers. In the meantime, a United Nations consolidated inter-agency appeal for Sudan remains underfunded by over 50%.

A spokesman for Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino defended the institution's funding record, claiming that on top of 11.8 million ecu in humanitarian aid, it had also contributed 6.7 million ecu to the World Food Programme (WFP) for 1998. He added that the European Commission's agriculture arm was planning to contribute another 20 million ecu in food aid and claimed that ECHO had very few funding requests for Sudan outstanding.

But a spokesman for Oxfam UK claimed ECHO had been a "very poor performer" in contributing to efforts to ease the crisis, adding: "All we are told is that more money is not in their global plan. This is hard to understand: Emma Bonino usually says that if there is suffering, the international community must respond."

Bonino's spokesman admitted that ECHO's planning system could lead to difficulties when the office was faced sudden large-scale demands for money, and that the Commission's budgetary procedures were quite complex. "This is a classic problem of humanitarian aid funding. We have to budget for events which are almost impossible to forecast," he said.

But he defended the system in general, arguing that it was essential to make long-term plans for medical and food supplies for semi-permanent crisis zones like Angola and Sudan.

Oxfam's comments come amidst growing concern at Europe's relative indifference to the Sudanese civil war and famine. Critics say that while the troubles in Kosovo have taken up hours of EU foreign ministers' time, Sudan, where 4 million people are suffering food shortages and more than 2 million are in serious need, scarcely features on their agenda.

At a meeting this week, ministers noted "the continuing and increasingly urgent need for humanitarian assistance" and said they supported efforts by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to broker peace.

But they shied away from committing the Union to any concerted political action and there were no demands for increased funding to the country.

In the meantime, Sudan remains on the brink of all-out disaster. "While we can firmly state that more food aid has to be rapidly delivered to the affected areas of Sudan, it simply won't be possible unless we receive a quick, massive injection of food and cash," said David Fletcher, the WFP coordinator for South Sudan.