UN humanitarian chief to visit Sudan

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 3, 2005 (Xinhua) — The top United Nations humanitarian official is due to arrive in Sudan on Thursday to begin a five-day visit to assess the situation in the country’s war-battered south and west.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland is scheduled to visit the town of Rumbek in southern Sudan on Friday, where he will speak to officials with UN aid agencies and partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Egeland’s office said in a statement.

Egeland will also meet members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the former rebel group that will be integrated into the government following January’s peace deal that ended the 21-year- old civil war in southern Sudan.

As many as 4.5 million people are displaced as a result of the civil war in southern Sudan. The United Nations has urged the international community to drastically increase its aid for southern Sudan so that communities have enough resources to deal with the expected massive influx of refugees.

Egeland will then travel on to Darfur, west Sudan, where a two- year-old conflict between rebels, the government and allied militias has killed tens of thousands of civilians and driven nearly 2 million others from their homes.

During his stay in South Darfur state, he will meet officials of the African Union (AU) mission which is monitoring a truce in Darfur, as well as local authorities, aid workers and affected civilians.