No surprise that aid agencies attacked in Darfur

Independent:

Aid workers in Sudan's Darfur region are coming under increasingly frequent and savage attack, with June among the worst months recorded, according to a confidential security report compiled by an international charity.

Thirty serious incidents took place in the last month alone - up from an average of 10 per month one year ago - as armed bandits and militia groups launched daily violent attacks.

The report, by a charity working in Darfur, which cannot be identified for safety reasons, reveals that 28 people working for international aid agencies were abducted, while more than 35 vehicles were either hijacked, shot at or stolen. Two people were shot dead and five were injured during attacks. In one of the most daring incidents, a convoy of 37 UN vehicles was ambushed near Kebkabiya in North Darfur. Two of the vehicles were hit by bullets and one of the drivers was injured . Three days later, 15 armed men forced their way into an aid agency compound, assaulting a guard and stealing a vehicle.

Dawn Blalock, spokeswoman in Sudan for the UN's humanitarian co-ordination body, OCHA, said: "Security has always been an issue but what has changed in the last year is that humanitarians are now direct targets. It is now a daily occurrence."

More than 2.5 million Darfuris have been forced to flee their homes and live in squalid camps, while a further 1.5 million are also dependent on humanitarian aid. In a region of just seven million people, the majority are now relying on aid agencies.

Despite the signing of the Darfur peace agreement in May 2006, the violence has still increased. Almost 500,000 people have fled since the peace deal. Many of the camps are now at full capacity but people are still arriving every day.

The very nature of the peace agreement may have encouraged some groups to take up arms. By rewarding armed groups with political power if they sign the agreement, one diplomat warned it was encouraging the rise in insecurity. "Take your guns, grab some NGO vehicles, seize a small town, then declare you want peace," he said.

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As in Somalia aid agencies become combatants in a logistic strategy. By providing aid to one side they are interfering with the logistic strategy of the other side which naturally makes them a target. The UN and these NGO's are making the same mistake they made in Somalia where they disrupted one sides attempt to starve the other into submission. What they need to comprehend is that if they are going to do that they need the military capacity to defeat the side that is forcing the famine. If they do not have that capacity they are risking another Black Hawk Down situation.