American diplomat commends Libya’s action on Darfur

TRIPOLI, Libya, Nov 22, 2004 (PANA) — The US ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Tony Hall, has commended Libya for its decision to allow the passage of American assistance to displaced persons in the western Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.

Hall said this in Tripoli Sunday during an audience with the deputy secretary (deputy minister) in the Libyan People’s General Committee for External Relations and International Co-operation, Mohamed Tahar Siala.

The two officials reviewed arrangements for the transportation of humanitarian aid scheduled to depart Monday from the south-eastern Libyan town of Kouffra to eastern Chad, where camps hosting thousands of refugees from Darfur are located.

Approximately 7,000 tons of various food products provided by FAO has arrived in Libya for onward transportation by land to Darfur, where over 100,000 displaced persons and refugees have fled from fighting in western
Sudan.

On 15 July, Libya and FAO signed an agreement under which Tripoli accepted to open a safe corridor through which humanitarian assistance will be moved by trucks to reach the needy people from Darfur, where fighting has been going on since February 2003.