Human-Rights Advocates Decry Ousting of Aid Charities From Sudan

Sudan’s expulsion this month of 13 international aid groups from Darfur is already putting added strain on the region’s sprawling displacement camps and will have horrific consequences in the weeks to come, aid workers say.

The ousted groups — 12 charities and one for-profit relief organization — employed about 6,500 people in Darfur and provided at least half of all aid, according to United Nations estimates. While the U.N. and other charities are scrambling to carry out emergency food distributions and plug holes created by the groups’ absence, aid workers say that will be all but impossible.

“The reality is that neither the U.N. nor the remaining NGO’s have the capacity to fill those gaps, so we’re facing a humanitarian catastrophe that will affect hundreds of thousands of lives over time,” said Samuel A. Worthington, president of InterAction, an umbrella group of international relief charities.

Among aid workers’ most immediate concerns is a looming meningitis outbreak in Kalma camp, where aid groups were preparing to vaccinate people before they were forced to leave.

Human-rights advocates are calling on the United States and the United Nations to do more to convince Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, to let the charities resume work and to resolve the conflict. While activist groups such as the Enough Project and Save Darfur have criticized the Obama administration for not acting more quickly, last week they scored a success: the appointment of a special U.S. envoy to Sudan.

“Clearly, Bashir devised this to really test the international community’s resolve,” said John Norris, executive director of the Enough Project, a group in Washington that advocates against genocide. “This is a real challenge for the Obama administration, and it’s important that all those people who care about Sudan make their voices heard now.”

Mr. Bashir ousted many of the groups just hours after he was served an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes. He has accused the 13 organizations of acting as informants to the court, a charge the aid groups strongly deny.

Activists say Sudan’s president is using the charities as a pawn in his efforts to get the U.N. Security Council to defer the court’s case against him.

Aid groups that lost their licenses to work in Sudan have had their assets seized, their equipment confiscated, and their offices forcibly closed. Mr. Worthington, of InterAction, estimates that tens of millions of dollars may have been taken by Sudan’s government.

Charity officials have little hope they will be able to return.

“We are doing what we can to engage in discussions in Khartoum and elsewhere,” said Michael Kocher, vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee. But, he added, “we are not at all optimistic.”

Mr. Bashir seems intent on escalating the situation. Last week, he said at a rally that he wanted all foreign aid groups out of the country by the end of the year. Sudan’s minister of humanitarian affairs seemed to backtrack on that statement the next day, however, telling Reuters that Mr. Bashir only wanted Sudanese groups to assume a bigger role in providing aid.

International charities point out that Mr. Bashir closed three Sudanese charities at the same time that he kicked out foreign groups.

Concerns about the safety of aid workers were also aggravated by the kidnapping this month of five staff members of Doctors Without Borders. The five were later released, but the charity has evacuated almost all of its employees from Darfur.

Such incidents, combined with the Sudanese government’s volatility, has made aid groups even more reluctant to speak with journalists and discuss their operations. Some groups that were at first outspoken about the expulsions have now instituted stricter policies about talking to the news media.

Seeking Donations

Charities that remain in Darfur are quietly trying to raise money to step up their operations and respond to growing needs. Oxfam America sent out an e-mail appeal to supporters shortly after the 13 groups, including its British counterpart, were kicked out. It has also reached out to foundations and other donors.

AmeriCares, which airlifts supplies into Darfur and nearby countries, is readying a flight to Chad. Aid workers say that as conditions in Darfur camps deteriorate, more people may seek refuge in camps in neighboring Chad.

“We want to try to strengthen those programs as much as we can in anticipation,” said Christoph Gorder, vice president of emergency response at AmeriCares.

Groups that have been expelled are trying to determine their next steps. Some are beginning discussions with donors about other places they might spend grants originally made for Darfur. Mr. Kocher of the International Rescue Committee says his organization may seek to use some of the money for activities in Chad, the Central African Republic, and Kenya.

“We’re hopeful that we will see flexibility and can reprogram the money in places like Chad and elsewhere as the needs arise,” he said. Some of the charity’s international staff members in Sudan are now being sent to bordering countries in the region.

Mr. Worthington said that his group and other relief organizations would be increasingly raising their voices about Darfur’s humanitarian crisis as it deepens. “Our attention and our cry will go up and up as hundreds of thousands begin to starve,” he said.

Their warnings are unfolding against a broader political backdrop. Organizations that advocate for an end to the years-long conflict in Darfur are calling for more action by the Obama administration and the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and more diplomacy with the African Union and the Arab League.

They say that Mr. Bashir should not be allowed to succeed in his attempt to get the U.N. Security Council to put off the International Criminal Court’s case, even if it means a prolonged period in which aid groups are kept out of Darfur. They say such a move would undermine the credibility of the court, weaken attempts to bring others to justice, and empower Mr. Bashir in his abuse of aid groups.

‘Keep People Alive’

Relief workers, however, say they are concerned not about the political aspects of the crisis but about finding ways to get aid to people in need. “Our imperative is to keep people alive,” said Mr. Worthington.

Douglas Rutzen, president of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, said one legal option aid groups might explore is seeking international arbitration against the Sudanese government for seizing their assets. Some countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland have “investment treaties” with Sudan that Mr. Rutzen said protects organizations from having their assets seized.

Mr. Norris said that an option of last resort might be to invoke “the responsibility to protect” to get aid into Darfur. In 2005, the United Nations recognized that governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens, and if they do not, other governments then have an obligation to help those in need.

How that might work in practice in Darfur remains to be discussed, said Mr. Norris, although he suggested the U.N. peacekeeping force might play a role in helping to provide aid.

But relief groups are leery, citing the fragility of a peace agreement that resolved a civil war in Sudan. “The challenge is that, to do that, you have to engage militarily,” said Mr. Worthington. “We would be aggravating human suffering.”