Christian Aid Calls for Civilian Protection & Funding for African Union

As the peacemaking and pledging conference was held on 26th May in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN leaders urged donors to provide the financing and political backing to help expand the African Union (AU) mission. They called for an end to one of the most pressing and destructive crises on the African Continent.

Mr. Annan expressed that although the violence in Darfur has stabilised over the last few months, the situation remains unacceptable as civilians are still at risk of attack and relief workers are increasingly being targeted. The UN and African Union leaders yesterday together called for urgent action to support their campaign to save millions of lives.

Christian Aid UK welcomes the additional funding promised in Addis Ababa, and at the conference Mr. Annan stressed and emphasised the effort to provide relief to more than 3 million people over the next year. He told of the great challenge of the 'race against time' with Sudan's rainy season and the 'hunger gap' which is fast approaching.

"Hundreds of thousands of war-affected people do not receive the help they need, and the AU troops are still far too few to deploy through the whole vast territory," said leaders considering the two-year conflict, which has seen countless people killed and driven from their homes.

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan and Chairperson of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, wrote in an opinion piece of the Washington Times, "Our two organisations have come together to prevent further suffering."

Christian Aid UK strongly supports the effort to reach a long-term settlement to the conflict and demands a stronger civilian protection mandate for the AU forces, which should be strengthened to permit the troops to operate proactively to protect civilians and humanitarian efforts.

Christian Aid also calls on the UK government to ensure the resolutions are truly upheld and that the AU are adequately equipped in order to provide essential protection to the civilians of Darfur, in the western region of Sudan.