Red Cross chief says access to Darfur improved but could still be better

CAIRO, 25 May (AFP) — Access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur has improved in recent days but could be better, its chief Jakob Kellenberger said here Tuesday.

“I can say we have now better access in Darfur and we can develop broader actions than in the past but is is still a very difficult humanitarian situation,” Kellenberger said after talks with Arab League chief Amr Mussa.
“ICRC can do more than in the past but we could do more.”

The Sudanese government announced that from Monday relief workers would no longer need special travel permits to enter Darfur, which UN officials have described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Some 10,000 people have been killed and more than a million driven from their homes, as the government has adopted a scorched earth policy in the face of an uprising launched by ethnic minority rebels in February last year, according to UN figures.

Last week, the United States warned it would seek UN sanctions against Sudan if it did not do more to end what UN officials have decribed as a “reign of terror” by government-sponsored Arab militias.