Relief efforts hindered in southern Sudan as fighting continues

NAIROBI, April 19, 2004 (dpa) — At least 50,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting in southern Sudan, hindering the delivery of much needed relief supplies to the area, the United Nations said Monday.

“Pro-government militias have conducted attacks against villages in the Upper Nile region,” U.N. spokesman Ben Parker told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from Sudan.

The U.N. spokesman said villages had been looted and burnt, and rapes had been reported. Other civilian infrastructure, such as schools and medical clinics, have also been destroyed.

Since early March, between 13,000 and 15,000 people fleeing the fighting have sought refuge in the main town in the region, Malakal, where they are receiving help from the U.N. said Parker.

Around 35,000 people have moved into areas which are inaccessible to the U.N. due to the lack of security.

“We can’t get to them. They are out in the open in a really swampy area. There is a high risk of malaria,” Parker said, adding that a U.N. team had been dispatched Sunday to make contact with the displaced.

Parker said the U.N. cannot determine whether the militias responsible for the attacks are sponsored by the government in Khartoum, adding that clashes between the main southern rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the regular government forces seem to make up a very small part of recent fighting in the Upper Nile region.

Lam Akol, an Upper Nile strongman who recently rejoined the ranks of the SPLA after a ten-year split, told dpa he was certain the government was sponsoring the militias. “They have not denied it”, he said.

SPLA and the Sudanese government are currently engaged in peace talks in Kenya, aimed at putting an end to a 21-year civil war that has directly or indirectly claimed two million lives.