U.N.: Sudan reopens camp to aid workers

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 16, 2004 (UPI) — The United Nations says Sudan has reopened the Kalma internally displaced persons camp in South Darfur to humanitarian workers.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative Jan Pronk, who only Sunday called for the reopening, also reported Monday that an IDP staff member of CARE-International, a non-governmental organization operating in Darfur, was released Saturday.

Humanitarian workers had been barred for three days from visiting Kalma camp, home to thousands of IDPs escaping attacks by Janjaweed militias.

The camp was shuttered after two alleged IDPs hired by CARE-International were attacked by Kalma camp IDPs for having attacked their home village. One of the victims died and the second was hospitalized with injuries, according to a spokeswoman for Pronk in Khartoum.

Sudanese officials detained one of the NGO’s staffers, but released him over the weekend, apparently before Pronk sought the release Sunday.

Pronk met Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha Monday to discuss the situation in Darfur, which has been widely described as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.