Sudan red tape choking UN aid
2003-11-10 16:08
Nairobi - Sudan's government is hampering an adequate response to an escalating humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Darfur region by reneging on a pledge to process aid workers' travel permits speedily, the UN accused on Monday.
"Some aid operations haven't been able to start. Aid workers who are ready to go (to Darfur) are getting stuck," because their permit applications have not been turned around within a promised 24-hour period, Ben Parker, the Nairobi-based spokesperson for the UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Sudan, Mukesh Kapila said.
Since February, Darfur, in western Sudan along the border with Chad, has been the theatre of clashes between a rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), and government forces backed by local militias.
At least 3 000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting.
Parker added that "the government has legitimate security concerns but we feel that there has to be a better way.
"I have heard of cases pending for weeks," he said.
"In the case of Darfur we remain concerned because procedures as currently followed remain a hindrance," he added.
"We are seeing dozens of villages being burned... the war is targeting civilians more than anybody else," explained Parker.
On November 5, the government and the SLM agreed to extend a shaky ceasefire until the middle of the month.
At the weekend, local administrators in Darfur urged the government to rein in Arab militia groups who allegedly killed some 88 people last week and torched 129km⊃2 of farmland.
In a statement released on Monday, Parker warned that the situation in Darfur "may emerge as the worst humanitarian crisis in the Sudan since 1998.
"Insecurity continues, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands and hampering relief operations. Humanitarian access is in some cases nonexistent, and there are few aid workers in the area," the statement said.
Kapila also called for guarantees of "unimpeded access to all vulnerable populations and for the protection of vulnerable civilians and humanitarian personnel" to be added to the ceasefire text.