WFP Killed Throughout Ambush In Southern Sudan

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4 (2 votes)

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The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) saidtoday that it is deeply saddened and shocked by the killing of one of itsemployees during an ambush in southern Sudan on Wednesday, January 10.

The WFP employee, Emmanuel Chaku Joseph, was 28 years old. He is the firstWFP staff member to have been murdered in Sudan in years.

“WFP deplores the cold-blooded and senseless killing of a man who wasworking to assist his country after many years of war,” stated WFP ExecutiveDirector, James Morris. “The thoughts and prayers of WFP staff are with Mr.Joseph’s family at this time,” he added.

“Mr. Joseph’s death marks a set back to all those who value peace andprosperity in southern Sudan, and is yet another example of daily outbreaksof violence which threaten the future stability of the region,” said WFPSudan representative, Kenro Oshidari.

Mr. Joseph was a Sudanese national employed by WFP as a driver. He wasassigned to drive for a WFP engineer who oversees a section of road beingbuilt by a German development organization, GTZ, under a WFP contract. WFPis building close to 3,000 kilometers of roads in southern Sudan at a costof more than $200 million and contracts function out to organizations includingGTZ to help carry out the project.

The ambush occurred when Mr. Joseph was travelling in a pickup truck on theroad between Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, and the town of Torit,where GTZ has a roadside camp.

Southern Sudan is classified as Phase 3 under the United Nations securitysystem, which means UN staff are required to adhere to strict securityprocedure.

In accordance with that procedure, Mr. Joseph was travelling with an armedescort provided by the southern Sudanese army, the Sudan People’sLiberation Army (SPLA).

Mr. Joseph, who was not driving the car at the time of the ambush, wastravelling in the pickup with 3 GTZ employees and the SPLA soldiers..One with the GTZ employees and two of the soldiers were wounded during theattack.

The pickup left Juba at approximately 10am on Wednesday. At approximately11.30am, the pickup was ambushed by a number of unknown gunmen who fired automatic weapons at the car. The body of Mr. Joseph was returned to Jubalater inside the day.

WFP employs 420 individuals in southern Sudan, most of whom are Sudanesenationals. In 2007 WFP will feed approximately two million men and women insouthern Sudan.

WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food toan average of 90 million poor men and women to meet their nutritional needs,including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world’s poorestcountries. WFP – We Feed Men and women.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign – For just 19 US cents a day, you canhelp WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school – a giftof hope for a brighter future.
http://www.wfp.org














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You Still Cannot Drink The Water, But Now It is possible to Touch It

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Engineers have developed a system that uses a simple water purification technique that can eliminate 100 percent of the microbes in New Orleans water samples left from Hurricane Katrina. The technique makes use of specialized resins, copper and hydrogen peroxide to purify tainted water.

The system–safer, cheaper and simpler to use than many other methods–breaks down a range of toxic chemicals. While the method cleans the water, it doesn’t yet make the water drinkable. However, the method may eventually prove critical for limiting the spread of disease at disaster sites around the world.

National Science Foundation-funded researchers Vishal Shah and Shreya Shah of Dowling College in Long Island, New York, collaborated with Boris Dzikovski of Cornell University and Jose Pinto of New York’s Polytechnic University in Brooklyn to develop the technique. They will publish their findings in Environmental Pollution.

“After the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, scientists have had their backs against the wall trying to develop safeguards,” stated Shah. “No one knows when a similar situation may arise. We want to develop a remedy for decontaminating flood water before it either comes in contact with humans or is pumped into natural reservoirs.”

The remedy system that the researchers are developing is simple: a polymer sheet of resins containing copper is immersed in the contaminated flood water. The addition of hydrogen peroxide generates free of charge radicals on the polymer. The totally free radicals remain bound to the sheet, where they come in contact with bacteria and kill them.

The researchers are working to lower the amount of copper within the treated water finish product and improving the system’s impact on chemical toxins. Shah believes it could be prepared for emergency use within five to seven years.

To develop their process, the researchers built upon a century-old chemical mechanism called the Fenton reaction – a process wherein metal catalysts cause hydrogen peroxide to produce large numbers of free radicals.

Free radicals are atoms or molecules that have an extra electron in dire need to have of a partner (they obtain the partner by stripping it from a nearby atom, damaging the “victim” in the process). In large quantities, the radicals can destroy toxic chemicals and even bombard bacteria to death or irreparably damage a microorganism’s cell membrane.

Applying their technique to water from the Industrial and 17th Street canals in New Orleans, the researchers were able to destroy all with the bacteria within 15 minutes. In tests with laboratory water samples containing even higher bacterial concentrations, the exact same process killed at least 99 percent of the bacteria in 90 minutes.

###

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of $5.58 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 1,700 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes nearly 10,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

Useful NSF Web Sites:

NSF Residence Page: http://www.nsf.gov/

NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/

Contact: Josh Chamot
National Science Foundation

Rural America A lot more Ready For Disaster — Also More Vulnerable

Healthcare Prof:

3 (2 votes)

From winter storms, to earthquakes, to terrorism — when a disaster strikes a community, who fares better, a rural community or an urban one? A new study at the University of Illinois attempts to understand the differences in how rural and urban citizens across the US respond to disaster. Preliminary results show that although rural residents may be more directly involved in responding to crisis, their location also makes them more vulnerable.

Courtney Flint, a rural sociologist and assistant professor at the U of I, and her student, Joanne Rinaldi, interviewed 20 coordinators of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) across Illinois to find out what they are doing, what disasters they are prepared for and what they do between disasters.

“What we’ve learned so far is that in rural communities there is a tradition of being more self-reliant,” said Flint. “They’re off the grid, so that makes them check on each other more, but they are also uniquely situated, closer in some ways to the physical environment and more isolated, making them uniquely vulnerable.”

Perhaps it’s that vulnerability that makes rural communities more self-reliant. Flint said that men and women in farm communities say, “We’re on our own. We know we’re not going to get the same first response in an emergency as the cities.” While people in urban communities ask questions about liability, rural dwellers say, “We can’t wait around for funding. If we need bandages, we’ll just start ripping up old bed sheets.”

“Farm families have to keep going,” stated Flint. “They may have livestock. They can’t wait for someone to flip the switch. They are more prepared for disaster. They have generators, kerosene heaters, snow plows and other equipment.”

Tornadoes, flooding, winter storms, and hazardous material accidents can strike a city as well as a farm. But in urban communities they are faced with a heavier concentration of individuals and a social vulnerability — neighbors don’t talk to each other as much.

Flint and Rinaldi are discovering that in rural communities, the CERTs themselves plan as if they might be the first responders to a disaster, while in urban and suburban communities in Chicago, for example, the need to have for CERTs is different because those communities have extensive first responders in their police and fire departments. “In the Chicago suburbs, the CERTs might do more crowd and traffic control, offer details, answer telephones and perform to unite blocks and neighborhoods in a disaster situation,” said Flint.

Most CERTS take an all-hazards approach — which is, they practice responding to a range of potential emergencies. Many of the CERT coordinators spoke about three broad categories of potential hazards: weather events, transportation accidents and hazardous materials, and terrorism.

“After 9/11, one county in Colorado did a big effort on anti-terrorism, but in 2006, they began shifting the focus to fire, flooding and flu because they saw the likelihood for these occurring as much greater,” said Flint.

Before 9/11 there were only about 175 CERTs. Between 2001 and 2006, the number grew to a current listing of 2435. CERTS were moved from being under the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) to Citizen Corps that is under the Department of Homeland Security. There are 86 Citizen Corps groups listed in Illinois but the total number of CERTs within the state is harder to assess. Finding this complete set of CERTs, and assessing how active each one is, is part of the study.

One aspect of Flint’s study is also to look at what CERTs can do between disasters. “We tend to be more reactive than proactive; we wait for the first big freeze to go out to buy shovels, flares for the car and plastic to cover windows,” stated Flint. “Before disaster strikes, CERTS can do a lot in a community to be proactive by building awareness, educating and coaching. In rural communities, they may do work such as stabilizing stream banks that may overflow — that sort of thing.” Defining the role of CERTs and the relationship with other first responders is critical to effective programs. “Funding consistency or a lack of sufficient funds was a common issue for a majority of the CERTs,” stated Rinaldi.

Flint hopes that the study will help show policy-makers that one size doesn’t fit all — that urban and rural needs are different. She has a colleague in Florida working on a similar study. Flint wants to develop a national database of active CERTs and to share lessons learned across the state and country between CERTs.

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Contact: Debra Levey Larson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Authors Of Iraq Civilian Deaths Paper Address Criticisms Of Their Study In This Week’s Lancet

lthcare Prof:

2.33 (3 votes)

Gilbert Burnham and his Iraqi and US colleagues respond to criticisms of their study that estimated 654 965 Iraqi deaths between March, 2003, and July, 2006 within the Correspondence section of The Lancet.

In an accompanying Editorial The Lancet comments: “By highlighting indirect post-invasion mortality not measured by other estimates, Burnham and colleagues give voice to thousands of dead Iraqis and show that damage to services that enable public health, such as water, sewers, electricity, and access to hospitals can be just as deadly as car bombs. The Iraqi government and its allies would do well to focus on this infrastructure and on services that promote human dignity and well being. Such a commitment towards the long-term welfare with the Iraqi men and women, rather than to short-term political goals, would aid to emphasise that health-care workers and other citizens and their families have a stake in building a secure Iraq.”

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This issue also features an interview with Gilbert Burnham (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA). See Lunch with The Lancet.

Contact: Lancet press office
Lancet

In Unprecedented Move, Fresh Express To Supply $2 Million To Fund Study Of E. Coli 0157:H7 Pathogen In Generate

lthcare Prof:

5 (1 votes)

Fresh Express, the No. 1 producer of value-added salads in North America and an industry leader in food safety, today announced that it will supply up to $2 million to fund rigorous and multidisciplinary research to support the fresh-cut produce industry prevent contamination by the deadly Escherichia coli 0157:H7 pathogen, which has caused numerous outbreaks over the past decade, including the recent occurrence related to fresh spinach. Although no Fresh Express product has ever been shown to have caused an outbreak of food-borne illness, the company is funding — and, in a unique move, will share this research publicly — in recognition with the benefits it may achieve for both the industry and consumers alike.

An independent scientific advisory panel comprised of six nationally recognized food safety experts from both federal and state food safety-related agencies and academia has been meeting on a nonpaid, voluntary basis since May 2006 to develop the most productive research priorities related to the source, mode of action and life cycle of E. coli 0157:H7 and the pathogenic contamination of lettuce and leafy greens. The panel is chaired by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H. and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota. In addition, the panel consists of Dr. Jeff Farrar, California Department of Wellness Services; Dr. Bob Buchanan, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Robert Tauxe, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Bob Gravani, Cornell University; and Dr. Craig Hedberg, University of Minnesota.

“At Fresh Express, food safety has been and will always be our No. 1 priority in every phase of our operations,” stated Tanios Viviani, president of Fresh Express. “We have long been dedicated to food-safety innovation, and this research effort is part of that ongoing commitment. We are grateful to these leading experts for their generous contribution of time and expertise to guide this initiative.”

Viviani continued, “We are hopeful that this research will yield new knowledge, practices and technologies that the whole fresh-cut produce industry can use to present consumers with ready-to-eat produce that is consistently safe and healthy.”

Based on Dr. Osterholm, the group evaluated the existing body of knowledge relating to E. coli 0157:H7 contamination in fresh produce and collaborated on the most critical research gaps in fresh produce contamination ranging from growing and harvesting to cooling, transporting, processing and packaging.

“We systematically used our individual areas of expertise to scrutinize the whole supply chain and ultimately uncover the areas where we collectively agreed more research was necessary,” stated Dr. Osterholm. “From this process, the five critical research priorities began to emerge fairly consistently.” The identified research priorities — and those against which research proposals are being sought — include:

Determine the potential for Escherichia coli O157:H7 to be internalized into lettuce or spinach.

Identify new mitigation strategies and technologies to reduce the potential for E. coli O157:H7 to contaminate leafy green produce.

Conduct field studies to identify sources, vehicles and factors that affect the degree of contamination or extent of contamination of leafy green produce by E. coli O157:H7.

Determine the ability of E. coli O157:H7 to multiply within the presence of normal background flora following the harvest of produce such as lettuce or spinach.

Determine the ability of E. coli O157:H7 to survive composting processes.

Funding is available immediately, and all proposals will be reviewed against guidelines established independently by this scientific advisory panel. To ensure the highest degree of integrity and value to each phase of the research initiative, the panel is empowered, without restriction by Fresh Express, to review proposals, make funding decisions and monitor and disseminate research results.

About Fresh Express

Fresh Express, a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (NYSE: CQB), is a leader in fresh foods and is dedicated to providing consumers with healthy, convenient ready-to-eat spinach, salads, vegetables and fruits. With the invention of its special Keep Crisp(R) Bag beginning in the early 1980s, Fresh Express pioneered the retail packaged salad category and was the first to make them available to grocery stores nationwide. More than 20 million consumers enjoy Fresh Express salads, spinach and greens every week. For more data, visit http://www.freshexpress.com.

Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
http://www.chiquita.com

New Orleans Lacks Mental Well being Treatment Alternatives Soon after Hurricane Katrina

5 (3 votes)

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is “facing an unprecedented mental well being crisis — and the city has no way to deal with it,” USA Today reports. In accordance with statistics from the coroner’s office, the suicide rate in the four months after Katrina struck in August 2006 was 300% greater than pre-hurricane levels. A CDC survey conducted after the hurricane showed that 26% of New Orleans residents felt at least one person in their family needed psychiatric counseling, although less than 2% were receiving support. Police data indicate that emergency calls for mental health reasons are coming in at a 15% higher rate than before Katrina. Despite the greater require for mental health care, few facilities and staff are available, based on USA Today. A survey cited in the Journal with the American Medical Association last spring found that 22 of 196 practicing psychiatrists had returned to New Orleans. Citywide, a youth mental wellness services facility has converted 20 beds to treat adults, and 20 beds at private facilities are available to adults needing inpatient services. Two public well being clinics remained intact after the storm, and although six others have reopened, four of them are in temporary trailers and none are fully staffed. With only 20% of New Orleans’ wellness department staff returned, few records of mental well being statistics are being kept as workers focus on day-to-day services, USA Today reports. Based on Kevin Stephens, director of the city Health Department, “This couple of months is our most critical time period. … New Year’s, Mardi Gras, Easter, and if men and women need (mental well being) services right now, there really is almost no place to go.” Jerome Gibbs, executive director of the Metropolitan Human Services District, said, “We’re stretched very thin,” adding that the reopened clinics are “having trouble with staffing, (and) we have tremendous resource needs. And we’re finding that there are large numbers of individuals who need services that aren’t even making it in” (Eisler, USA Today, 1/16).

“Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You are able to view the whole Kaiser Daily Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Well being Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a cost-free service of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . ? 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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International Response To Fight HIV/AIDS Among Children ‘Tragically Insufficient’ But ‘Beginning To Alter,’ U.N. Report Says

lthcare Prof:

3.67 (3 votes)

The world’s response to fighting HIV/AIDS among vulnerable children remains “tragically insufficient,” but some countries are making progress in providing treatment for HIV-positive children and preventing transmission with the virus, based on a report released Tuesday by UNAIDS, UNICEF and the World Well being Organization, the New York Times reports (Altman, New York Times, 1/17). The report, released on the first anniversary with the “Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS” program, found 15.2 million children under age 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related complications (AFP/Yahoo! News, 1/16). The campaign — which is a partnership between UNICEF, UNAIDS, and other organizations and agencies — aims to reduce the incidence of mother-to-child HIV transmission, curb the spread with the virus among young men and women, and provide protection as well as emotional and financial support to children who have lost parents to AIDS-related illnesses (Kaiser Every day HIV/AIDS Report, 11/10/05). The report says that 2.3 million children younger than age 15 were living with HIV in 2005 and that 10% of the 780,000 children in require of antiretroviral drugs had access to them during the same time period. About one-third of HIV-positive infants who do not have access to treatment die from AIDS-related complications in their first year, and half of them die from AIDS-related complications by age two, the report found. These statistics indicate that about 380,000 children died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, based on UNICEF. The report identifies seven countries — Botswana, Cape Verde, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Namibia, Rwanda and Thailand — that provided antiretrovirals to at least 20% of children in want with the drugs. The lack of access to prevention and remedy interventions has left about 15.2 million children orphaned, and the number is expected to increase to 20 million by 2010, according to the report. About 9% of HIV-positive pregnant women living in low- and middle-income countries in 2005 received antiretrovirals that could prevent MTC HIV transmission, up from 3% in 2003, the report found. About 10% of pregnant women living in sub-Saharan African capital cities are HIV-positive, based on the report. The majority of pregnant women in Africa do not have access to drugs aimed at preventing MTC HIV transmission, meaning that about one-third of their infants will become HIV-positive at or shortly after birth, based on UNICEF (New York Times, 1/17). The report also found that the most successful results occurred in countries that instituted a decentralized approach to HIV/AIDS service and training, demonstrated a political commitment to fighting the disease, and incorporated prevention and therapy to whole families (Leopold, Reuters, 1/16).

Recommendations
“Over the past year, there has been a broad, growing recognition of the want to intensify and accelerate action towards universal access to comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support” for HIV/AIDS, the report says. It calls on governments to present at least 10% of their HIV/AIDS funding for children and adolescents. In accordance with the report, about $30 billion is required to address the prevention strategy set out by the Unite for Children campaign, which aims to supply services to 80% of HIV-positive mothers by 2010, offer antiretroviral or antibiotic treatment to 80% of children who want it, and reduce the number of HIV-positive young individuals by 25% within 3 years (AFP/Yahoo! News, 1/16).

The report is available online. Note: Adobe Acrobat is needed to view the report.

“Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. It is possible to view the entire Kaiser Every day Wellness Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Day-to-day Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a totally free service with the Henry J. Kaiser Household Foundation . ? 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Loved ones Foundation. All rights reserved.

Record Number Of Countries Contribute Record Amount To Unfpa In 2006

f:

In 2006, 180 countries around the world contributed a total of $360 million to the regular resources of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. This was the highest number of donor nations and the largest amount of contributions to UNFPA since the organization began its operations in 1969.

“We are very thankful for the continuous and growing support from nearly all United Nations Member States,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. “We take this new record as a solid sign of the global commitment to our work and mandate. It also highlights the importance of sexual and reproductive well being, as well as HIV prevention, for development.”

The number of UNFPA donor countries has steadily increased over the last few years, from 69 in 1999, to 172 in 2005, to last year’s new high of 180. The top six donors were the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Japan and Denmark. In addition, every nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as all sub-Saharan Africa, pledged funds to UNFPA in 2006.

In 2005, co-financing income-earmarked to specific projects- reached a high level of $158 million, which included contributions in response to two highly visible emergencies – the 2004 Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake. Co-financing income in 2006 reached the same high level, even though there were no emergency situations with the same scale. The number of donors committed to multi-year funding also rose from 55 countries in 2005 to 73 countries in 2006.

“Achieving universal access to reproductive is vital for poverty eradication, and it requires partnerships and efforts from governments and the civil society,” stated Ms. Obaid. “Seeing so many different countries supporting our work is heart-warming, and I hope this support will continue to grow within the years to come.”

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of wellness and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is cost-free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

For more info please go to:
The United Nations Population Fund

UN Agencies Warn Of Threat To Humanitarian Work In Darfur

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Over the last two years the efforts of humanitarian agencies in Darfur have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up within the region’s conflict. During this time mortality rates were brought below emergency levels, global malnutrition was halved from the height of the crisis in mid-2004 and nearly three-quarters of all Darfurians now have access to safe drinking water. In 2006 alone, 400,000 metric tons of food were delivered. In the face of growing insecurity and danger to communities and aid workers, the UN and its humanitarian partners have effectively been holding the line for the survival and protection of millions.

That line cannot be held much longer. Access to men and women in want in December 2006 was the worst since April 2004. The repeated military attacks, shifting frontlines, and fragmentation of armed groups compromise safe humanitarian access and further victimize civilians who have borne the brunt of this protracted conflict. Within the last six months alone, more than 250,000 folks have been displaced by fighting, many of them fleeing for the second or third time. Villages have been burnt, looted and arbitrarily bombed and crops and livestock destroyed. Sexual violence against women is occurring at alarming rates. This situation is unacceptable.

Nor can we accept the violence increasingly directed against humanitarian workers. Twelve relief workers have been killed in the past six months – more than inside the previous two years combined. Their loss has had direct consequences on the Darfur humanitarian operations. The killing of three government water engineers in West Darfur in July 2006 led to a temporary suspension of water and sanitation activities in camps for IDPs. Nine workers from the same Government department were abducted in South Darfur in November 2006 – five are still missing.

In the last six months, 30 NGO and UN compounds were directly attacked by armed groups. More than 400 humanitarian workers have been forced to relocate 31 times from different locations throughout the 3 Darfur states, including from the capitals El Fasher and El Geneina and from rebel-controlled areas. Assets have been looted and staff threatened and physically harassed. In the town of Gereida (South Darfur), targeted attacks against six humanitarian compounds on 18 December forced the NGO staff to withdraw, seriously compromising the delivery of vital assistance such as food, clean water and well being care for 130,000 displaced persons, the largest IDP gathering in all Darfur. Ten days earlier, within the town of Kutum (North Darfur), the staff of four NGOs and WFP were forced to withdraw to El Fasher, after an attack on a clearly marked humanitarian compound. These are but two examples of the types of incidents which have taken place throughout Darfur.

If this situation continues, the humanitarian operation and welfare of the population it aims to support will be irreversibly jeopardised. Ongoing insecurity negatively affects access to well being care for the population of Darfur, as many NGOs providing primary well being care have had to suspend or minimize their activities. This reduction in services is leading to a deterioration of the hygiene in IDP camps, reflected by the cholera outbreak that struck 2,768 and killed 147 individuals during 2006. Global malnutrition rates are edging perilously close to the emergency threshold, while some 60 percent of households in need of food aid cite insecurity as the main barrier to cultivating their land, raising livestock and taking part in other income-generating activities.

The humanitarian community cannot indefinitely assure the survival with the population in Darfur if insecurity continues. The undersigned members of the United Nations Country Team in Sudan welcome concrete steps from both the signatories, including the Government, and the non-signatories towards the Darfur Peace Agreement towards a peaceful settlement in Darfur and the respect of international humanitarian law and principles.

However, such progress must be sustained. Solid guarantees for the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers is urgently needed. At the same time, those who have committed attacks, harassment, abduction, intimidation, robbery and injury to civilians, including IDPs, humanitarian workers and other non-combatants, must be held accountable. If not, the UN humanitarian agencies and NGOs will not be able to hold the fragile line that to date has provided relief and a measure of protection to some four million people in Darfur affected by this tragic conflict.

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This statement has been endorsed by the following members of the UN Country Team in Sudan:

International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC)
United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS)
United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
World Food Programme (WFP)
World Health Organisation (WHO)

For further data please go to: http://www.un.org and World Food Program