Sudan to announce “decisive” resolutions on Darfur “Western” aid groups

June 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese authorities have been assessing the performance of “Western” aid agencies in the country’s war-battered region of Darfur in order to issue “decisive resolutions” in the next few days, an official announced on Monday.

In a report carried by the Sudanese Media Center (SMC), a website believed to be operated by the country’s security and intelligence apparatus, the director of the organizations department at Sudan’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs (HAC), Ali Adam Hassan, said that the competent authorities had received “a report on the performance of Western aid organizations” in the western region of Darfur.

HAC is mandated to regulate the work of local and foreign aid groups countrywide. However, its mandate does not include UN agencies.

According to the official, the report focused on Western groups in order to reflect “many of their weaknesses and errors in their performance.”

Hassan went on to elaborate that the report had sought to assess five aspects related to aid groups’ operations, including partnership with national institutions, budgetary and financial resources, the projects adopted by these organizations and the extent to which these projects chime with the humanitarian aid strategy for Darfur peace.

In light of this report, the official said, “decisive and binding resolutions” would be announced in the next few days in order to reform the performance and objectives of aid groups in Darfur.

Sudan has more than once expelled Western aid agencies on allegations of their involvement in espionage activities. Most notably in March 2008 when dozens of foreign aid agencies were expelled from Darfur in the wake of the issuance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudan’s president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the region.

Later in 2010, the ICC issued another arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on the charge of genocide.

Darfur region has been the scene of a humanitarian emergency since fighting erupted in 2003 between the government and rebels accusing it of marginalizing the region.

A harsh counterinsurgency campaign orchestrated by Khartoum and its allied Arab militias in the region is blamed for the death and displacement of thousands of people.

UN estimates say 300,000 people died and 2.7 lost their homes since the conflict started. The government claims that the number of deaths is around 10,000.

(ST)