Humanitarian Groups Report Darfur Donor Fatigue

Funds for Darfur are drying up, the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported, as aid agencies make drastic cuts to their services and supplies.

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Friday, May 05, 2006

Funds for Darfur are drying up, the Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported, as aid agencies make drastic cuts to their services and supplies.

The World Food Program and humanitarian organizations have been scaling back aid operations with little donations coming in. While Darfur still stands war torn and tens of thousands of refugees go malnourished, agencies are reporting donor fatigue.

"This is the third year of a complex emergency in which a lot of resources have gone. There is a certain amount of donor fatigue," said Ted Chaiban, who heads Sudan operations for the U.N. Children's Fund, according to The Associated Press.

Food rations provided by the World Food Program have been halved and UNICEF was forced to halt its measles-vaccination program.

However, more attention to the Darfur crisis in the past month has prompted donations once again. April was designated as the month of action by the Save Darfur Coalition which has so far collected three-fourths of the one million postcards it's aiming to collect against the genocide currently taking place. The postcards were delivered to the White House at a large rally involving religious leaders held Sunday.

Evangelical heads including the Rev. Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Rev. Geoff Tunnicliffe, international director of the World Evangelical Alliance, urged for action to stop the genocide.

The deadline for the peace agreement has also revived monetary giving. On Friday, the Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel faction accepted the African Union drafted peace deal which was produced after two years of talks.

Both delegations expressed concerns over some of the terms and two other Darfur rebel groups rejected the deal, but as Majzoub al-Khalifa, head of the government's negotiating team, highlighted, peace and the alleviation of the humanitarian situation in Darfur is the priority.