Christian relief and development agency, Tearfund, today thanked its supporters for donating £1.7 million in the first two weeks of its emergency appeal for Sudan. More than one million people are currently displaced by conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan and face a deepening threat of hunger and disease.
“There has been an incredible response from Christians, with churches holding special collections and individual families responding very generously out of a faith-driven desire to make a difference,” says Marcus Oxley, Director of Disaster Management at Tearfund.
Tearfund relief workers are launching supplementary feeding, nutrition and sanitation programmes in some of the worst affected areas inside Darfur, while Tearfund church partners are working in camps in Chad where 200,000 people have sought refuge.
“The response to the appeal is heartening. We are still in a race against time to get help to affected people in Darfur, many of whom still have no shelter and little or no food and water,” says Marcus Oxley. “The rainy season is starting and there is a very real danger of fresh outbreaks of disease and hunger. The rains are already making it difficult to get aid through to those who are suffering.”
Tens of thousands of people have died in the past 15 months, many of them murdered by Janjaweed militias who have attacked, looted and terrorised villagers in Darfur. Two rebel groups in Darfur with political, economic and social grievances against the Sudan government launched an armed rebellion last year, after which attacks against civilians by Janjaweed militia escalated. Human Rights Watch and other international bodies have accused the Sudanese Government of arming the Janjaweed. The government deny involvement.