Turkey to send humanitarian aid to Sudan’s Darfur

ANKARA, Sept 14 (AFP) — Turkey is to send two planeloads of aid to Sudan’s western Darfur region, where the UN says some 50,000 people have died and 1.4 million been forced from their homes in 19 months of war, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

“To attenuate the crisis which has already claimed thousands of victims, it has been decided to send humanitarian aid to the Sudanese region of Darfur,” the ministry said in a statement.

Two Turkish air force cargo planes will take off on Wednesday from the capital Ankara bound for Darfur, carrying food, tents, medicine and laboratory equipment worth a total of 275,000 dollars (224,000 euros), the statement said.

A parliamentary delegation assisted by representatives of Turkish non-governmental organisations will oversee the aid delivery, the statement said.

The region in western Sudan has been the theatre of civil war since February last year when black African rebels rose up against the government to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation of the area.

Khartoum gave an Arab militia group, the Janjaweed, free rein to crack down on the rebel groups.

Last week, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Khartoum and its proxy militia group were committing genocide in Darfur.

Talks are under way in Nigeria between the rebels and government to try to restore peace in the region, but the three-week-old negotiations have made little headway.