Aid agency Goal has questioned the merit of sending Irish peacekeeping troops to southern Sudan when there was an urgent need to stabilise the situation in the west of the country.
Goal chief executive John O'Shea said: "Why, in Gods name, is it deemed more important to send 10,000 troops to an area, where peace has broken out — than to what the UN itself has called, the biggest humanitarian tragedy on the planet."
He was speaking in the wake of reports that the Government was considering sending troops to join a UN force keeping the peace in southern Sudan.
The UN has asked Ireland to deploy troops as part of a multinational force set up to police the January's peace accord, which ended 21 years of civil war.
Minister for State for Overseas Co-operation Conor Lenihan said UN representatives made the request during his visit to Sudan last week and that he would be contacting the Department of Defence shortly.
Mr O'Shea said: "Up to 400,000 people have been murdered in Darfur and there is no end in sight to the slaughter. The few African Union troops on the ground in Darfur have not been able to prevent the bloodshed".
Sudan is seeking $2.6 billion from donors today to help its south recover after Africa's longest civil war, a process that has been overshadowed by violence and charges of war crimes in Darfur.
Former rebels and Sudan's government vowed to stick to the peace deal urged donors at a 60-nation conference in Oslo to help the vast, poor region.