UN official barred from Darfur

2006-04-03 17:30

Sudan - The UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, has been refused access to Sudan's troubled province of Darfur, although he has the necessary visa, the United Nations said on Monday.

"Mr Egelend has been informed that he is not welcomed in Darfur or Khartoum," said Dawn Elizabeth, the spokesperson for the Sudanese office of the co-ordination of humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"We had a (Sudanese) visa allowing us to travel to Darfur, but something is obviously wrong here," she said by satellite phone from the Bor district in southern Sudan.

Elizabeth is travelling with Egeland, the UN humanitarian relief coordinator, who has sharpened his criticism of Khartoum for the worsening situation in Darfur.

Plane denied landing rights

Egelend was scheduled to travel to either Nyala or El Geneina in Darfur on Monday, before proceeding to the capital Khartoum for talks with officials there.

"This highlights the problems that humanitarian operations are still facing in the Darfur," she added.

Officials, who refused to be named, said the government had taken the action to "prevent Egeland access to see the latest situation after a recent upsurge in violence in Darfur."

On Sunday, Egeland told reporters that the Khartoum government had denied his plane landing rights in the southern town of Juba, forcing him to delay his trip by more than six hours and eventually use a commercial flight from Entebbe.

- AFP