U.S. and European media

April 22, 2023

Associated Press: UN Chief Says Over 1 Million at Risk in Darfur. The United Nations chief warned Tuesday that Sudan's expulsion of 16 aid groups from Darfur has put the lives of more than 1 million people at risk and increased the potential for instability in the region. In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Sudanese government to reconsider its decision to oust aid workers and to ''re-establish an atmosphere of trust and mutual confidence with the humanitarian community.'' While joint efforts by the U.N. and Sudan ''can address some of the most critical gaps in aid delivery in the coming weeks,'' Ban said, ''the cumulative effects over time of the removal of such a large amount of humanitarian capacity puts well over 1 million people at life-threatening risk.'' ''The rainy season starting in May is likely to make the situation significantly worse,'' Ban warned.

Reuters: Actress Mia Farrow to start fast over Darfur. Actress Mia Farrow, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador, announced on Tuesday that she will begin a hunger strike next week to show solidarity with the people of Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region. "On April 27 I will begin a fast of water only in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die of starvation, thirst and disease," Farrow said in a statement. "I undertake this fast in the heartfelt hope that world leaders who know what is just and right will call upon the government of Sudan to urgently readmit all of the expelled agencies or otherwise insure that the (aid distribution) gap is filled," Farrow said. She added that she hopes other "human rights advocates and citizens of conscience around the world will join me in some form of fasting, even if for one day."

Bloomberg: Woman Aid Worker Held Hostage in Darfur Says Colleague Is Ill. Two women aid workers taken hostage in Darfur on April 4 are being fed one meal a day and spend most of their time sleeping as they wait to learn the outcome of negotiations for their freedom, one of them said. Claire Dubois, a French nurse who had arrived in Darfur just two weeks before she was kidnapped, is suffering from diarrhea, her Canadian colleague, Stéphanie Jodoin, said yesterday in a satellite telephone interview arranged by the kidnappers. "We don't have anything here," said Jodoin, of Montreal. "My NGO tried to send things, but it did not arrive -- drugs, food, water." Jodoin and Dubois work for Aide Médicale Internationale, a French charity that provides health care to rural populations in the Darfur region of Sudan. "We still have hope to survive," she said. "We start thinking that it might take a while."


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