Sudan denied 15 aid groups permits to work in Darfur: official

March 19, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese ministry of humanitarian affairs revealed that it has refused to allow 15 foreign aid groups to work in the western region of Darfur on the ground that the situation there has improved.

The government sponsored Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website quoted the state minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel-Baqi Al-Gailani as saying that Khartoum offered on these organizations to work in South Sudan instead.

Al-Gailani called on national relief groups to “play a strong and effective role” in the coming period to close the door in front of foreign groups “that come to work for unannounced goals”.

Last year the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir reacted with anger to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued for him for war crimes in Darfur, announcing expulsion of 10 international aid organizations.

Al-Bashir said that the humanitarian organizations were being expelled for “activities that act in contradiction to all regulation and laws” namely passing false info to the ICC something which the prosecutors at the Hague based court denied.

Later, the Sudanese president said he wanted local organizations to take over relief distribution within a year. However, the “sudanisation” decision was quietly reversed scrapped shortly after.

In a related issue, the former humanitarian aid commissioner Hasabu Abdel-Rahman denied reports that he was sacked over corruption charges stressing that he resigned voluntarily to run in the elections.

This week, the Akhir-Lahza newspaper said that the council of Ministers wants a probe into the performance of the humanitarian affairs ministry and the relationship between the minister and the state minister.

The newspaper quoted reliable sources saying that issue is an outcome of what it called the chaos in decision-making within the ministry and spoke of unaccounted funds including eight billion pounds earmarked for the emergency program, two billion pounds for humanitarian action.

(ST)