Sudan orders French aid worker to leave Abyei

March 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese authorities have ordered a French aid worker to leave immediately a contested oil-rich area in the middle of the country, U.S.-based humanitarian group Mercy Corps said on Tuesday.

“I just spoke with the local government down there…They have some issues with one staff member. He’s leaving Abyei,” said the organization’s country director for Sudan, Richard Haselwood.

“Our programmes are continuing as normal. They have concerns about one individual. We are complying with their request,” added Haselwood, unwilling to comment further until he had more information.

Details of the incident were murky but aid workers said the French man was falsely accused of telling the Sudanese health minister it was too dangerous to visit.

Neither the other expatriate Mercy Corps staff member nor the more than 30 Sudanese staff members in Abyei are affected by the expulsion order.

The still undefined status of Abyei, rich in oil and of vital economic importance, is a source of massive tension between the northern, mainly Arab Sudan and the south despite the end of a 21-year civil war in 2005.

(AFP)