David Drew MP briefly announced the Sudan APG report. Baroness Cox presented her findings after a three week visit to South Sudan with the Humanitarian Aid and Relief Trust.
HART delegation returns from visit to southern Sudan
Despite the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Southern Sudan, signed on January 9, 2005 in Naivasha, Kenya between the Sudanese government and the rebel group-turned political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), fighting has continued to the present day, with hundreds of thousands remaining displaced and a devastated infrastructure.
Roughly 2 million civilians have been killed in southern Sudan, and more than 4 million forced to flee their homes at one time or another since the war began. The civilian death toll is one of the highest of any war since World War II. HART delegates have just returned from a visit to this war-torn region, where their objectives were: to meet HART's Partner in Yei, to hand over donations, to investigate needs in the areas of Bahr-El-Ghazal and the Nuba Mountains; and to obtain first hand evidence of the present humanitarian and political situation in Southern Sudan and in the Nuba Mountains.
Central findings in HART’s ReportKey in the delegation’s findings was a sense of disaffection and instability amongst people in southern Sudan, who feel that the CPA, which was signed under great pressure by the international community, only cements problems for the south and marginalised areas in terms of the allocation of resources. These same, disaffected communities speak of the failure of the National Congress Party in Khartoum to declare details of oil revenues, creating suspicions that they are cheating the South of substantial wealth due to them. This means that the goliath task of rebuilding the infrastructure of the South and marginalised areas in terms of health, education and sanitation, seems even more remote. Currently, the humanitarian situation is acute: only 13% have an Immunization programme (EPI); many areas have no access to any form of health care or education, and door agencies, already overstretched, are struggling to meet the needs of local communities.Full findings can be read in the Sudan Report 2008, which will soon be available online. http://www.hart-uk.org/
