Sudan suspends expulsion of Southerners in White Nile for two week
May 2, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s minister of social affairs, Amira Fadil announced Wednesday that South Sudanese in White Nile are allowed to remain the neighboring state up to 20 May cancelling an expulsion deadline fixed by the governor.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN humanitarian affairs representatives in Khartoum called on the Sudanese government to review a decision of White Nile governor to expulse over 12.000 South Sudanese in the state capital Kosti on May 5, as deadline.
Sudan blocked the barges used by IOM to transport the South Sudanese from Kosti to Juba saying South Sudanese army use them to transport troops and military equipments to the border areas.
Amira told the official SUNA that the extension was decided after a meeting with the While Nile governor Youssef al-Shambali. She further pointed out that the IOM and UN will transport them by road to Renk, Upper Nile state.
White Nile governor, al-Shambali last week refused to extend the deadline he fixed stressing that the Southerners who have been living in makeshift shelters threatens the security and the environment of the state capital.
The governor took his decision after the occupation of Heglig in the neighbouring South Kordofan by the South Sudanese army.
The occupation of the oil region triggered nationalist feeling in the north and even some radical Islamist youth burnt a church in the suburb of the capital Khartoum.
(ST)