US, EU offer humanitarian aid for Darfur
KHARTOUM, Feb 17 (AFP) — The United States and European Union have offered food and funds to drill water wells in western Sudan’s conflict-hit Darfur region, a senior Sudanese official was Tuesday quoted as saying.
Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs Mohammed Yusuf Abdallah said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) offered enough food for six months to the region, according to the Sudan Media Center (SMC).
During a recent visit to Darfur, a delegation led by USAID assistant administrator Roger Winter welcomed President Omar al-Beshir’s decision to open relief corridors in Darfur, Abdallah said.
After an earlier visit to Darfur, the European Union decided to donate one million dollars to drill water wells in the Kutum area, in the northern part of North Darfur State, where 27,000 displaced persons are sheltering, he said.
The humanitarian operations “are going on satisfactorily, particularly after opening relief routes on Monday,” according to the state humanitarian affairs minister.
He said 4,500 tonnes of food had been stocked in Al-Fashir, of which 190 tonnes began to be transported to the border localities of Umbru, Kernawe Abelah and Forawiyah that were until recently under rebel control.
Some 3,000 people have been killed and another 670,000 displaced within Sudan itself by the conflict, while another 100,000 Sudanese are estimated to have fled across the border into Chad because of the rebellion.
The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has dismissed Beshir’s claims last week to have crushed the rebellion it launched in February 2003 over charges the government had neglected the impoverished region.
SLM spokesman Hassan Ibrahim, in a telephone call to AFP in Cairo, said rebel forces late Monday seized control of the city of Khazzan Jadid, about 120 kilometers (72 miles) south of Nyala in South Darfur State.
“Government forces and (pro-government) popular defense militias fled, and we now control all vital axes around the city,” he said, without giving a casualty toll.