Garang seeks more aid for southern Sudan

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2005 (AFP) — John Garang, leader of south Sudan’s former rebels, met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and appealed for more humanitarian aid for his war-battered country, US officials said.

A four-year-old Sudanese boy collapses from hunger at a feeding centre run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the village of Paliang, about 160 km northwest of the southern town of Rumbek, May 25, 2005. (Reuters).

They said Garang, slated to be sworn in as vice president in a national unity government, conferred with Rice on a variety of issues following the January peace pact with Khartoum to end 21 years of civil war.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Garang spoke of the need to take care of millions of refugees that had fled the southern region during the war and were now expected back.

“Dr. Garang asked us to take a look at the levels of humanitarian assistance that we currently have scheduled for the South, and that is something that we agreed that we would take a look at,” McCormack said.

McCormack said the United States currently provides about 90 percent of the humanitarian food aid going to the South. But asked whether Rice promised to come up with additional aid, he repeated, “We’ll take a look at the issue.”

“The United States is, as with all aspects of the Sudan issue, deeply involved and we will urge others to follow through on their pledges that they made at the Oslo conference (in April),” McCormack said.

The spokesman said that Garang and Rice agreed on the need to bring outside groups into the North-South process capped by January’s peace deal.

They also discussed the violence-torn western region of Darfur and agreed that “the ultimate solution to the situation in Darfur is a political solution,” according to McCormack.

He said Rice was non-committal to the offer Garang reiterated to send troops of his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement to Darfur to work alongside African Union forces as peacekeepers.

“She only stressed that it is important to address all aspects of the situation in Darfur. These are all interlinked, that you have to address the security situation, the humanitarian situation,” McCormack said.