UN official urges help for refugees from Sudan's forgotten wars
Saturday 04 September 2004
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EmailTOP UN official Dennis McNamara warned yesterday that, while the world focuses on the Darfur crisis, three times as many people have been suffering for much longer in other conflicts involving Sudan's government.
Money has flowed in to help the two million Darfurians who have been caught in 18 months of civil war, but few funds are available for the six million Ugandans and other Sudanese caught in related conflicts that have lasted over 18 years.
"I think the magnitude of these other problems has been lost a bit because of the intensity of Darfur," Mr McNamara, who is the top UN official dealing with people displaced within their own country due to war.
"You've got to deal comprehensively and even regionally if you want to stabilise these situations," he added.
Mr McNamara recently visited northern Uganda, where more than 1.6 million have fled their homes because of an 18-year civil war between government forces and Lord's Resistance Army rebels.
The rebels, who operate from bases in southern Sudan and have received Sudanese government backing, have abducted more than 30,000 women and children to use as servants, concubines and child soldiers.
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