Expelled US aid groups deny return to Sudan

June 12, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – A number of US based aid groups as well as UN office for humanitarian affairs moved quickly to deny earlier reports that Sudan will let some of the relief organizations it expelled to resume its work in the country.

Sudan asked more than a dozen foreign aid groups to leave the country last March accusing it of passing “fabricated” information to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrest warrant issued for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

This week the UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that four of these groups have been authorized by Khartoum to resume work under new names or new logos.

“That possibility is there for all the organizations that were expelled and some of them have already taken advantage of that, and have got very recently new registrations, and will be restarting their operations” Holmes said.

“Four have already applied for new registration under their slightly changed new names and they have been accepted. I think the same possibility is open to others” he added.

Holmes said these groups include CARE, Save The Children, and Mercy Corps.

However, today the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the four NGO’s referred to by Holmes “should not be characterized as returning NGOs”.

“While from related organizational families, they are not the same, and have been registered in Sudan as new INGO implementing groups and authorized to open new operations in the Sudan on that basis” the statement said.

Sudan has said in the past it will not rescind its expulsion orders under any circumstances to these groups but left the door open to return of new aid organizations including Western ones.

CARE USA reacting to Holmes statements said that its registration in Sudan “remains void” but noted that CARE International Foundation (Switzerland) has applied for permission to operate in the country.

“CARE International Switzerland is a distinct and independent organization registered in Switzerland, under Swiss law, and is separate from CARE USA”.

The US based Mercy Corps echoed similar remarks saying that Mercy Corps Scotland based in the UK has been granted permission to work in Sudan.

Some observers have said that by registering the same organizations expelled that are registered in different countries is a “face saving” compromise for Khartoum, which has vowed not to reverse its decision.

Yesterday the Sudanese envoy at the UN Abdel-Mahmood Abdel-Haleem said that “those that have been expelled are expelled. They are not being allowed to come back. But whoever would like to apply afresh, credentials will be checked and a decision will be taken on a case-by-case basis”

Some 4.7 million people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur. Many of the camps, where some 2.7 million residents headed after the violence drove them from their homes, lie in flood plains

(ST)