Red Cross warns on Darfur as Sudan says US aid team will be allowed in
By Mohammed Ali Saaed
KHARTOUM, April 29 (AFP) — The Red Cross said Thursday humanitarian relief operations still need a massive boost in west Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, as Khartoum promised access for US aid officials amid increasing anger from Washington.
“The humanitarian situation is grave and the needs of the affected populations are vast and pressing,” said an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
“The needs are far from being covered by the current capacity of the humanitarian agencies” in Darfur, where a year-old war is estimated to have killed 10,000 people and uprooted a million more, Vassily Fadeev warned.
He said his organisation was “ready to step up its operations in the region and bring them to a meaningful level”, in coordination with the Sudanese Red Crescent as well as Sudanese authorities.
The United Nations and human rights groups have alleged “widespread atrocities” by government-backed forces in the largely desert area of western Sudan in trying to suppress a rebellion which broke out in February 2003.
Access to Darfur has improved since mid-February, the Fadeev said, adding his organisation had reached tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict.
The ICRC has provided more than 42,000 with material assistance, particularly shelter, and ensured access to safe water to more than 72,000 people, he said.
Sudan’s acting foreign minister, meanwhile, said entry visas to Sudan will be granted to US aid officials as soon as a visiting high-level United Nations team completes its assessment of the humanitarian needs.
“I explained to the US charge d’affaires, Gerard Gallucci, on Wednesday that the government of the Sudan has no reservations, whatsoever, towards the USAID and its activities and programmes in Sudan,” Najeib al-Khair Abdel Wahab said.
He said he had told Gallucci that entry visas would be granted to the US Agency for International Development “as soon as the UN mission completes its task of assessing and identifying the humanitarian needs” in Darfur.
The UN mission, led by World Food Programme executive director James Morris, left here Wednesday on a tour of Darfur.
The United States on Wednesday denounced as “unacceptable” Sudan’s continued refusal to grant visas to a US disaster response team to visit Darfur, accusing Khartoum of ignoring the urgent needs of the Sudanese people.
The State Department said Sudan had done little or nothing in response to repeated international appeals to permit relief workers to travel to the region.
On Tuesday USAID chief Andrew Natsios accused Khartoum of holding up a “massive relief effort” by intentionally blocking access to Darfur and suggested it might be doing so in a bid to cover up widespread human rights abuses, including “ethnic cleansing” of black African inhabitants by Arab militias.
On Monday, the ICRC said from its Geneva base that it was giving a massive boost to aid for Darfur to turn it into one of the relief agency’s largest operations in the world.
The ICRC has increased the number of foreign staff in the region to 15, but is now trying to bring that number up to at least 50 to provide mainly medical help for hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes.
But on Tuesday, Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir said on a visit to Darfur that the region had abandoned war and ushered in peace.
“We have entered a new state of peace, security and tranquility … We have bidden farewell to (military) operations, war and insecurity,” he said in a speech.
“Let’s join hands and embark on development projects,” said Beshir, pledging to resume work on a bridge over the Khur Assum river, water projects and other projects interrupted by the region’s conflict.