The government of the Order of Malta will contribute 250,000 euro towards relief measures for people in Darfur

“The international relief measures implemented to date are insufficient to meet the needs of the people in Darfur and to prevent what could be thousands of deaths,” asserts Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, who as Grand Hospitaller is responsible for the Order’s health and social projects worldwide. “We want to help the Emergency Corps Order of Malta (ECOM) – the Order’s international disaster relief network – to purchase immediately the necessary relief goods and to send further staff to Sudan.”

In the Darfur region in Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people are now living in the streets. Their houses have been burnt, their villages and harvests destroyed. They urgently need food, water and medical care. As one of the few relief agencies working in northern Darfur, ECOM via Malteser Germany aims to meet these primary needs.

If you wish to contribute to the Order of Malta’s humanitarian intervention in Sudan please send your donations to:

Banque Belgolaise Bank, Cantersteen 1, B – 1000 Brussels

Account N° 603-1050582-19 (EUR)

Swift BLGO BE BB

IBAN: BE 39 6031 0505 8219

Beneficiary ECOM

Reference: Sudan (Dafur)

Since February 2003 there has been an escalating conflict in the Dafur region in west Sudan with over 10,000 people killed. The brutal attacks on civilians have created the largest humanitarian crisis in the last 10 years according to the United Nations. It is estimated that a million people have been displaced by the attacks and that 180,000 have flooded into refugee camps in the neighbouring country Chad. The majority of the displaced have lost everything, are in permanent fear and lack food, water and shelter as well as any kind of medical care.

The Order of Malta Emergency Corps (ECOM) has been active in southern Sudan since 1997 with various health programmes.