Sudan, UN to sign deal on Darfur access

March 27, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s government and the United Nations are expected to announce an agreement on Wednesday that will give humanitarian groups better access to victims in the Darfur region, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in Darfur in four years of rape, murder and pillage. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term Khartoum rejects.

The Khartoum government has been accused of creating bureaucratic obstacles that have hurt aid efforts, along with violence and insecurity around camps for the displaced.

“The United Nations has made several requests on getting better access in Darfur and we will announce an agreement on those issues,” foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig said on Tuesday, without elaborating.

The new U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, who has just concluded his first trip to Darfur, pressed for better access in talks with senior government officials. He said the talks were “positive”.

But Holmes stopped short of saying he had received assurances from the government. He said the world’s biggest humanitarian operation in Darfur could collapse if the situation kept deteriorating.

(Reuters)