Darfur Sudan - Oxfam-Québec 2011

March 2011 - Sudan continues to face many grave humanitarian challenges. In the north the conflict in Darfur continues with the levels of violence and insecurity once again increasing. This has led to the new or continued displacement of nearly two million people leaving them reliant on outside assistance for food and other basic life-saving services. In the south the recent referendum decision to secede from the north (January 2011) has brought new challenges to a region already devastated by decades of civil war and beset by inter-tribal violence and chronic natural disasters (drought flooding). Hundreds of thousands of southerners have now decided to return to a homeland that lacks even the most basic infrastructure in many areas overwhelming local capacity to feed shelter and provide basic services to the population. CIDA's support of this Oxfam-Québec project is helping to provide life-saving water and sanitation services to more than 450 000 internally displaced and conflict-affected people in Darfur. Oxfam has been present in Darfur since the outbreak of the conflict in 2003. It continues to meet the basic life-saving needs of existing and newly displaced populations through the maintenance and expansion (as needed) of water and sanitation systems in displacement camps throughout the region.