Sudan’s Beshir says aid agencies are ‘real enemy’ in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Oct 28 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir has launched an attack on international humanitarian agencies in the troubled Darfur region, calling them enemies in comments published Thursday.

“Organizations operating in Darfur are the real enemies,” the official Al-Anbaa daily quoted Beshir as saying, without elaborating.

“The conspiracy against Darfur is not new,” he added, in remarks to representatives of native administrations in Darfur.

The president also accused the West of fuelling the 20-month conflict in the region that has left tens of thousands of people dead, displaced more than 1.4 million others from their homes and forced a further 200,000 into Chad.

“Western countries are funding the unrest in Darfur,” Beshir charged, adding that there were also other elements that wanted to “explode the situation” in the region, again without elaborating.

He argued that those “claiming to be concerned” about the crisis were “liars and hypocrites. They are all enemies.”

Beshir and other officials in Khartoum have repeatedly accused NGOs of proselytising in Sudan and charged that the West was fueling the conflict in a bid to plunder the country’s resources.

The United Nations says the conflict between the government, backed by proxy Arab militia, and ethnic minority rebels has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Beshir’s government has come under mounting pressure over its involvement in what Washington has termed genocide and has been accused of hampering the relief effort.

The UN Security Council has also passed resolutions demanding that Khartoum disarm and disband marauding militias or face sanctions on its vital oil industry.

Beshir insisted that the crisis was a “Sudanese issue” and “not the responsibility of the Security Council” or any other party.