Annan: Darfur situation has improved

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Saturday 28 May 2005 12:08 PM GMT

Annan encouraged local authorities to do more in Darfur

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has noted an improvement in
the humanitarian situation in Sudan's Darfur region.

Annan, while commending Sudan on Saturday for its
achievements in Darfur, called for local authorities to exert
even more effort to improve the condition of hundreds of
thousands of displaced people.

On a daylong visit to South Darfur state, he was briefed by
Governor al-Haj Ata al-Mannan Idris on tribal reconciliation
efforts aimed at restoring social cohesion and improving the
lives of residents.

Annan conceded to the governor that the overall humanitarian
situation was improving, but said more efforts were needed to
restore Darfur to normalcy.

Devastated town

Later in the day, Annan toured a burned-out town in the
troubled Sudanese region of Darfur and heard survivors
describe how it was bombed in a government air raid.

Thousands of refugees welcomed the UN chief in Kalma Camp,
the biggest in Darfur, before he travelled to Labado, also in
South Darfur state, to wander among burned huts and speak to
worried owners who have started returning home.

"Now we are back but still we don't have security and we feel
unsafe," Murra Ahmed told Annan after she described how five
government planes had bombed Labado and driven her out.

The southern Darfur state had seen some of the worst recent
violence in the three-year conflict.

In Khartoum on Friday, Annan met top Sudanese officials about
Darfur.

"We discussed the need for us to do everything we can to
bring security to Darfur, and ensure that the farmers can go
back to their land, plant it, cultivate and harvest their
crops. Otherwise we are going to have a major humanitarian
effort which will stretch the capacities of the international
community," Annan said after the meeting.

Race against time

The secretary-general's three-day visit to Sudan immediately
followed his attendance at an international donors' conference
in Ethiopia, where Annan said the world was facing a "race
against time" to prevent Darfur's situation from worsening.

By Friday, donors had pledged $300 million in cash and more
in kind to help the African Union expand its peacekeeping
mission in Darfur.

At least 180,000 people have died - many from hunger and
disease - and about two million others have fled their homes
in Darfur to escape the conflict, which erupted when rebels
took up arms against what they say are years of state neglect
and discrimination.

Sudan for its part has said that rebels have exploited an age
old conflict between subsistence farmers and nomads over a
shortage of grazing land.