The joint Action by Churches Together/Caritas programme has, over the last 18 months, become one of the largest NGO emergency programmes in Darfur, where it has helped thousands forced to flee from the ongoing conflict.

|PIC1|The ACT/Caritas programme has constructed or rehabilitated 22 clinics and two rural hospitals, as well as establishing 120 water points and rehabilitating more than 70.

The programme has also provided simple shelter materials and kitchen sets to 65,000 households, rehabilitated 34 schools, and distributed supplementary food to 36,000 children and pregnant/lactating mothers.

ACT/Caritas now plan to consolidate these existing activities from January onwards, especially in the areas of health care, as well as increase its focus on peace-building.

With the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force possessing no mandate to intervene, villages are still being attacked and people continue to be displaced or killed.

|TOP|The situation also remains too dangerous for people to return to their villages, leaving the people of Darfur largely unable to plant crops and making them hugely dependent on humanitarian aid.

“In the short term we have to provide the shelter, water and health care services, which protect vulnerable lives, but in the long term we must use our position to foster peace and reconciliation”, said Anthony Mahony, Humanitarian Officer for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).

ACT/Caritas are also providing psychosocial activities such as crafts to help take the minds of the people who have fled from their homes off the conflicts and sometimes their traumatic experiences.

With the situation remaining so precarious, the ACT/Caritas programme is stockpiling essential materials in order to support newly-displaced people and to allow them to fit their response according to the changing circumstances.

|QUOTE|“It is crucial for CAFOD to stand by the people of Darfur as long as they are in need,” said Mahony.

Darfur remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis according to the UN, with more than two million people now living in makeshift camps or with host families after being forced to leave their homes. A massive 3.5 million people remain without food.

The African Union (AU) peace monitoring force of around 7,000 troops, hugely inadequate in a region the size of France, has also come under serious threat as the Union continues to face a huge financial shortfall.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, announced that the United Nations is assembling contingency plans to deploy a quick-reaction force to take over from the struggling African Union.

|AD|We have started contingency planning to be ready if and when the decision is taken for us to go in," Annan told reporters.

A report presented to the Peace and Security Council of the African Union concluded that the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) would not continue longer than March if a huge cash injection was not found, with the report concluding that the operation might have to be handed over to the UN.

The AU said in December 2005 that it needed over 130 million dollars in new contributions to be able to continue its AMIS operations.

The main rebel groups in Darfur welcomed the idea but Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol described any possible handover as "premature" and reiterated his government's confidence in the AU contingent.

Jan Pronk, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy in Sudan, told the Security Council on Friday that the AU contingent in Darfur lacked the means to prevent conflict and proposed a more robust UN force to take its place.

Annan said that the UN would look to world governments with such capability to help the UN in its Darfur mission if it received the mandate.

"The international community cannot allow that situation to go on unaddressed and in all likelihood will have to look at other options, including possibly the UN working with the AU to redress the situation," he added.

According to Annan, AU Commission chairman, Aplha Omar Konare, expressed the pan-African Union’s desire to keep the AU peacekeeping force in Darfur for another nine to 12 months “provided the donor community gives them the necessary resources for logistical support”.