Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Fides Service)- According to the news service of the Jesuit Refugees Service-JRS on 26 January Denis McNamara UN special co-ordinator for internally displaced persons IDP criticised the international media for neglecting the situation of IDP in Sudan and Uganda. He said the number of IDP is double the number of refugees outside these two countries. In Sudan at present there are over 4 million IDPs. McNamara was speaking at a meeting of the UN office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs(OCHA) at the Hotel Norfolk in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. McNamara said at present 25 million people, mostly women and children are displaced in their own country.
He said that the ratio IDP and refugee is now over two to one but their serious condition at the international level is given little consideration. There are no international laws on the rights of IDPs or government obligations towards them. McNamara ended his address calling on Western countries and Japan to stop selling arms to African countries.
A representative of the UN Development Programme urged donors to consider development problems rather than spend enormous sums of money to pay humanitarian workers and UN peacekeepers. Norah Ochieng head of Advocacy JRS East Africa said: "governments have a primary responsibility to assist their own IDPs, international humanitarian agencies should only intervene if governments fail in this endeavour .
The high number of IDPs is due to civil war in southern Sudan and in northern Uganda which put millions of people in flight. In addition more recently there are displaced persons fleeing violence in the west Sudan region of Darfur. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 8/2/2006 righe 31 parole 380)
