Sudan slams UN for calling Darfur “world’s greatest humanitarian” crisis

KHARTOUM, March 21 (AFP) — The Sudanese government protested strongly against the UN humanitarian coordinator here Sunday for calling the conflict in the western region of Darfur “the world’s greatest humanitarian” catastrophe.

Both the foreign and humanitarian affairs ministries denounced remarks made by coordinator Mukesh Kapila during a visit to Kenya on Friday as amounting to lies and revealing bias.

Kapila said the conflict in Darfur, which erupted in February last year, “is now the world’s greatest humanitarian and human rights catastrophe” and was also “possibly the world’s hottest war.”

The foreign ministry on Sunday summoned acting UN coordinator Nimal Hettiaratchy to issue a “strong protest” and ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to investigate Kapila’s performance, said junior foreign minister Najeib al-Khair Abdel Wahab.

Abdel Wahab also told AFP his ministry considered Kapila’s statements “irresponsible” and lacking the “objectivity and neutrality” associated with the United Nations.

He added that the ministry considered the remarks as deviating “from the UN norms and traditions of supporting its judgements with facts, figures and statistics.”

Kapila said the Darfur war, which has only recently begun to receive serious international attention, had killed more than 10,000 people and affected more than a million others.

Systematic rape, a “scorched earth policy” and attacks on civilians were “tantamount to war crimes,” he said.

Kapila said such attacks had taken place on “a scale comparable” to Rwanda in 1994, where a genocide claimed up to a million lives.

Kapila’s assignment in Sudan was due to expire by the end of March, Abdel Wahab noted.