UN World Food Programme suspends operations in Sudan’s N Darfur
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov 25, 2004 (AP) — The U.N.’s World Food Programme has temporarily suspended its operations in most of the troubled Sudanese state of North Darfur and relocated its staff to the capital due to renewed clashes between rebels and government forces, the aid group said in a statement Thursday.
“In total, some 300,000 (internally displaced people) in North Darfur are cut off from WFP food aid as long as the current fighting continues to close most of the roads in the state for U.N. personnel,” the statement said.
Despite a Nov. 9 cease-fire, fighting broke out last week between government-backed militias, known as Janjaweed, and Sudan Liberation Army rebels, apparently following a tribal dispute over livestock. On Monday, 45 humanitarian aid workers who fled the fighting were rescued by the African Union mission.
“All WFP staff and many NGOs (non-government organizations) were withdrawn from the field as a precautionary measure and relocated in El Fasher,” the WFP statement said.
It said a truck convoy carrying 235 metric tons of food aid from El Fasher to other towns was halted by the fighting, “threatening the delivery of assistance to 100,000 internally displaced people.”
Later Thursday, African Union officials, SLA members, government authorities and mediators from Chad were to meet in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina to try discover the causes of the renewed violence and revive the humanitarian and security agreements reached Nov. 9 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Much of the fighting has centered around the town of Tawilla, about 70 kilometers west of the state capital of El Fasher. Sudanese authorities said at least 30 people were killed in fighting Monday, and reports said government planes dropped bombs on the town.
SLA commanders claim that government aircraft also bombed the town of Tadit, 40 kilometers south of El Fasher, on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of 25 SLA fighters and some civilians, according to the statement.
Rebels have also attacked the Kalma refugee camp in South Darfur.
The WFP said that SLA have withdrawn from Tawilla but that the situation is “highly volatile” in North Darfur and “tense” in the other two Darfur states, “continuing to hamper WFP’s efforts to bring food aid to Darfur’s distressed IDPs and local residents.”
So far in November, the WFP has delivered almost 12,000 metric tons of food aid from warehouses to central distribution points, enough to feed 700,000 people, the statement said.
More than 1.8 million people are estimated to have been driven from their homes in the 21-month Darfur conflict. International agencies estimate that since March, disease, malnutrition and clashes among the displaced have killed more than 70,000 people. Many more have been killed in the fighting, but no firm estimate of the direct war toll exists.