UN envoy won’t go to Sudan despite lifting of travel ban

April 6, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A top U.N. envoy barred by Sudan last week from visiting its western Darfur region was forging ahead with a previously scheduled visit to Nairobi even though Khartoum reversed its decision.

Jan Egeland, U.N. Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, was to visit Darfur when Sudan Monday refused his plane permission to land. It also rejected his subsequent requests to go to the capital Khartoum and then to fly over Darfur on route to Chad.

Egeland was aware of the Sudanese government’s Wednesday statement reversing its earlier position but couldn’t go to Darfur now, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. It wasn’t clear when the envoy would head to Darfur, but had commitments in Nairobi late this week.

Khartoum backtracked on its decision after the U.N. and European Union protested.

Egeland was to visit western Sudan to assess U.N. relief operations assisting hundreds of thousands of people. He said Tuesday that during the last four months, 200,000 people had been forced from their homes in Darfur.

Sudan told him visits to Darfur and Khartoum, in the Muslim part of the country, were too sensitive because his country, Norway, had published the offensive cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Egeland called the excuse ridiculous, arguing Sudan’s government wanted to prevent him from seeing the deteriorated humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Fighting in Darfur has left about 180,000 dead — most from disease and hunger — and displaced another 2 million from their homes.

(ST/AP)