A/HRC/4/80 page 14 35. Cross-border attacks into Chad by Janjaweed and retaliations by rebels and Chadian forces have resulted in a dramatic increase in Chadian IDPs – from about 30,000 in June of 2006 to over 113,000 by the end of that year.13 Today, the conflict is also having a growing impact in the Central African Republic. If the conflict in Darfur is not meaningfully and equitably resolved, bringing peace and security to its people, it could increasingly engulf the region. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a peace-keeping force along both borders. 36. Humanitarian aid has, since the beginning of the conflict, consistently been restricted by the Government with delays in the issuing of visas, travel permits to go to Darfur, daily travel permits to leave the capitals in Darfur, and fuel permits to travel around Darfur. But with the spiralling of violence since the DPA, humanitarian access to populations in dire need has been increasingly strangled and in some areas it has ceased entirely. Action by rebel groups has also impacted humanitarian access in recent months.14 37. Attacks on humanitarian agencies have increased dramatically over the past months. On 17 January 2007, in an unprecedented initiative, 14 United Nations agencies with operations in Darfur issued a Joint Statement on the urgency of the situation. They noted that: 12 aid workers have been killed in the past six months -- more than in the previous two years; 30 NGO and United Nations compounds were directly attacked by armed groups; and more than 400 aid workers were forced to relocate 31 times from different locations throughout the 3 Darfur states in both government and rebel controlled areas There have also been three sexual assaults on relief workers in the previous five months – the first in September 2006 by Janjaweed /militia, the second in December 2006 by SLA/MM forces, and the third on 19 January 2007 by Government police and National Security agents.15 IV. SUDAN’S ACTIONS REGARDING THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT 38. The witnesses, victims and observers with whom we spoke, and the United Nations and other documentation consulted underscore that the killing of civilians in Darfur remains widespread. Violence has increased since late 2005 and has continued unabated into 2007.16 13 See UNHCR briefing note January 2007 “While there has been a decrease in fighting between the Chadian army and opposition forces, intercommunal conflict continues in south-eastern parts of the country near the border with Sudan’s Darfur region. More than 10,000 Chadians have been driven from their homes in cross-border attacks by alleged Janjaweed militia in the Borota region, and another 10,000 have fled more than 20 villages and are now gathered in the town of Gassire, 8 km north of Goz Beida. This insecurity is now posing a direct threat to refugee camps housing thousands of Sudanese from Darfur”. See www.unhcr.org. 14 See Sudan Humanitarian Overview, 1-31 January 2007, Vol.3, Issue 1, OCHA and Darfur Humanitarian Access Map available at www.unsudan.ig.org. 15 16 Idem. See, inter alia, UN Security Council, monthly report of the SG on Darfur, S/2007/104 of 23 February 2007.