Just a stone's throw from the food markets, babies die of malnutrition

[gottaB]

By Kim Sengupta in Nyala, Darfur

In the land of hunger, awaiting epidemics, control of humanitarian aid is a potent source of power. In Darfur there is growing evidence that this power is being abused to revive the very same communal hatred that has produced this devastation.

Just a stone's throw away from Nyala, the capital of south Darfur, a functioning town packed with government officials and international aid workers, with food in the market and cafés, babies are dying of malnutrition. Thousands of people, men and women, the elderly and the very young have been abandoned to lives of wretchedness, ignored by those who are supposed to help them.

You cannot call these "tented cities'', as they do not run to tents, just as they do not run to food distribution, toilets, drainage, medical facilities or, until very recently, water.

Just a stone's throw from the food markets, babies die of malnutrition....

[NNN0LHI]

1. Where is the US, UN, Vatican, media, etc., on this?

Dragging their feet as usual.

Don

[gottaB]

2. the foot-dragging has a body count

Eric Reeves provides an estimate of the death toll that is, as usual, extremely grim and well documented: Darfur mortality update III.

My own rough sense is that on the low end, 30,000 to 50,000 dead due to violent bloodletting is probably not grossly inaccurate. Reeves figure of 80,000 involves extrapolations and inferences of the sort that msf (Doctors Without Borders) isn't willing to back up (Crisis in Sudan, NewsHour, 08122004).

The CDC, in collaboration with UNHCR, WFP, WFP, WHO and Chad's domestic agency, CNNTA, recently completed a study of mortality among Darfuri refugeees in Chad which included a count of missing persons. If one assumes that the missing have died violently--dubious but perhaps not entirely unwarranted--and then extrapolates to the entire population of the displaced, about 1.2 million, that would mean that approximately 29,000 people died in acts of violence between November 2003 and June 2004. This is a smaller timeframe than the one Reeves uses in the extrapolations that yielded his estimate of 80,000, which was not completely explained. Reeves' figure of 40,000 killed by arms between September 2003 and February 2004 would appear to be based on conservative assumptions, but the CDC survey, if I'm reading it correctly, would suggest that the level of violence recorded in the Mornei region is more of an anomaly than Reeves allows.

In any case it appears that the official Sudanese estimate of 5,000 dead is not even close to the truth. 30,000 to 50,000 is more like the truth. That doesn't include deaths to malnutrition and related diseases. All indicators seem to confirm that Dr. Nabarro's worst fears are being realized (350 a day could die in Sudan, UN says), and then some. Reported rates of global acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition bear out USAID's predictions, as Reeves notes:

The overall conclusion must be that US AID's "Projected Mortality Rates in Darfur, 2004-2005" has been confirmed to a very high degree, both in predicting mortality and malnutrition, and that in the days and weeks and months ahead is likely to offer all too telling a measure of daily human destruction.

How many have been killed, all told? Take a conservative estimate of 30,000 violently slain, add Nabarro's figure of 50,000 dead due to the effects of starvation. Add in an estimate for the last 45 days. Given that the populations in the camps have swollen, that aid rations have been cut and that aid deliveries have been obstructed and inadequate to begin with, that sanitition has become a serious problem and outbreaks of hepatitis and malaria have been reported, and that violent attacks have continued, and using Nabarro's figure of 350 per day, an estimate of an additional 15,750 dead on the conservative end does not seem unreasonable. 45,000 dead, which would assume that global acute malnutrition is indeed taking its toll, seems rather extreme given that there have been some "successes" by relief agencies, and the level of violence by all accounts is not as bad as it was earlier in the year. Nevertheless, that figure of 45,000 may prove to be closer to reality than the figure of 15,750.

In any case, by the time the UN security council meets to decide what to do or not do about the crisis, any estimate of mortality offered which is less than 100,000 is likely to be deceptive. Measured in numbers of human lives lost, the cost of the 30 day delay provided by the security council has to be at least 10,000. Extreme rates of malnutrition suggest that further delays will be even more costly.

[JimHarper3]

6. Forgotten Africa

Africa has been largely ignored for decades by the US and other "first world" countries. I was curious about this and did a little research...I found out from the various conflicts on the African continent, including Chad, who's conflicts go all the way back to 1965(!), total war-related deaths in Africa total over 8,125,000 people. Add to that AIDS-related deaths, which add another 2,272,000. That is over 10 million men, women and children.

And the West has largely looked the other way for decades. It doesn't matter after all that these are human beings--I guess it is because there is no economic benefit (i.e. oil under their feet) to them. If they were European, that would be different. If these were Americans, there would be a total mobilization. As much as the WTC was a horror, it was just a blip compared to the real horrors of the world happening right under our noses.

Check out Conflicts in Africa -- Introduction by Anup Shah (http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa/Intro.asp):

"The armed conflicts of 1999, some of which have lasted more than 20 years, have claimed almost seven million lives. In Sudan alone there have been two million war deaths since 1983. Since World War II the death toll has reached at least 25 million, with many more millions driven from their homes. During 1999 more than 30 million people were denied their homes due to war. About 20 million are internally displaced and another 10 million had been forced to flee to other countries as refugees.

"There have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered. If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation. "

[gottaB]

8. yeah,

"and the little coverage given only focuses on the brutality of the conflict and not on possible solutions."

There's a real problem with our global citizenship in that regard, we Westerners. I suppose our press does better than China's or Iran's, but that's not saying much, is it?

Thanks for that link, JH3. Welcome to DU.

[SoCalDem]

5. They show up, give speeches and then leave

Unfortunately the rest of the world has come to "expect" famine in Africa.. There have been so many.. remember Biafra..Ethiopia..??

Raising crops is somehting that even the poorest people CAN do, UNLESS they are run off their land or intimidated by war..

THAT'S the real problem in Africa.. It;s not a lack of food.. It's a lack of stability , so that people can stay where they belong..

And the underlying causes of the "almost-routine" routs, are still the same.. religious purges and intra-tribal warfare..

It's not pc to say this, but I sometimes wish that the men would all just go off somewhere and let the women and children lead "normal" lives..

[progressivebydesign]

7. Bush is too busy settling Daddy's score with Saddam..

.. and trying to make Iraq safe for CONTRACTORS! He could give a shit about the humans in Iraq or Sudan; It's all about repaying his base, the contractors. This situation in Durfur would not be happening if Gore or Clinton, or Kerry were president now. This is unbelievable.

[mbperrin]

3. We live in a country where having so much grain stored

has created the problem of keeping it from rotting before it can be used. No one and I mean no one, should be hungry. Ever. The fact that there are hungry people only makes me hope that the burning hell they taught me as a child really exists.

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

:kick: