Fresh concerns are being expressed about the extent of the famine threatening southern Sudan and the effectiveness of the relief operation bringing food aid to the region.
Up to 60 per cent of people in some areas of Bahr El Ghazal province are now suffering from malnutrition as the food supply continues to deteriorate, the Pope's administrator in the area said yesterday.
Mgr Caesar Mazzolari said the food distributed so far by the UN, aid agencies and the churches was "far from being enough". The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) was able to deliver only half the 10,000 tonnes of emergency food aid needed each month, he estimated.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, admitted in the Dail last week there were concerns that WFP had not been "moving fast enough". However, he pointed out that the bulk of food supplies have to be moved by air, which is extremely costly.
Mgr Mazzolari said: "The famine is now hitting hard the children, the disabled, the elderly and the lepers - those who have most difficulty in reaching the food distribution centres."
"I witnessed dramatic cases of starving mothers with their children collapsing on an airstrip after walking all night - and finding that the food distribution had ended," he added.
According to UNICEF, refugees fleeing hunger and fighting in the region continue to arrive in the southern town of Wau at the rate of 1,000 a day. It says the response has been constrained by a "less than adequate" co-ordination among aid organisations.
Irish aid agencies have stepped up their relief efforts in response to the worsening situation. Concern, which has raised over £500,000 in a public appeal, is chartering an aeroplane to bring food into the worst-affected areas of Bahr El Ghazal. Goal has also launched a fundraising drive and Trocaire, World Vision Ireland and Refugee Trust are continuing to provide assistance.
The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, is leading Irish efforts to find a political solution to the civil war in Sudan between the Islamist government and mainly Christian rebel forces. A public meeting on the crisis in the region is being organised today by the Southern Sudan Solidarity Group, at Wynn's Hotel in Dublin at 3.30 p.m.
