Aid agencies tread carefully through ethical minefield (Darfur, Sudan)

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Local officials in the Sudanese town of Zalingei have decided it is time for their guests to go home. Ibrahim Adam Ibrahim, the acting head of local government in the market town in Sudan's Darfur region, says 39,000 people have poured into Zalingei since African rebels took up arms against the Arab-led government last year. The population of the town has more than doubled.

"There are problems for the schools. There is a deterioration in health and food prices are rising," he says. "We are preparing to take them back before the end of June."

Containing famine and disease in conditions like those in Zalingei poses considerable ethical dilemmas for international relief agencies such as the United Nations World Food Programme, Care and Médecins Sans Frontières. Aid workers navigate these knowing that wars in central and east Africa have consistently challenged their operating principles.

In times of conflict and disaster, the short-term humanitarian imperative of saving lives can be difficult to achieve while remaining neutral. Nor does saving lives necessarily further broader political reconciliation.

Aid agencies tread carefully through ethical minefield....