Catholic Relief Service resumes Darfur relief program

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Catholic Relief Services has been allowed to resume its work in Darfur among the 400,000 people relying on its emergency food and supplies.

“As of Thursday we received the news that we would be allowed to resume operations,” Catholic Relief Services spokeswoman Sara Fajardo said.

“We are working with the local government to ensure that food distributions begin immediately.”

Fajardo said the Government had asked CRS to leave because they said they couldn’t guarantee their security.

One of the Government’s claims was also that we were distributing bibles. “This is completely wrong. It is against all our operating principles’, Fajardo said.

Fajardo clarified that CRS was a humanitarian organisation and the majority of the staff in Dafur were Muslim.

“Our work is based on need and not creed”.

The United Nations has warned that a growing list of NGOs are being forced out of Darfur at a time when humanitarian work is already failing to meet local needs.

Last month, French aid agency Medecins du Monde was expelled from the eastern part of Jebel Marra, Darfur’s fertile central highlands, after it was accused of supporting a rebel group active in the area.

Sources