Sudan is blocking aid delivery in disputed border region says U.N. refugee agency
GENEVA: On Tuesday The U.N. refugee agency accused Sudan of blocking aid deliveries to thousands of people who have fled fighting in the disputed border region with South Sudan.
Geneva-based UNHCR said north Sudanese authorities have for almost a week blocked planes from landing at Kadugli, about 60 miles (100 kilometres) north of the provisional border. Militias allied with the north have also set up roadblocks in Kadugli to stop overland access, it said.
The capital of Sudan’s South Kordofan state has been the site of clashes between the north’s Sudan Armed Forces and elements of the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army present in Kadugli.
The U.N. has asked both sides to provide security so aid workers can reach some 10,000 people who have fled the ongoing fighting. At least 10 people have been killed in fighting there over the past week and air strikes can still be heard in the vicinity, UNHCR said.
Insecurity means aid workers have even been unable to reach a warehouse just a few miles from the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s base in Kadugli.
“The authorities have told us it’s because of security, because they are carrying out military operations in the area,” UNHCR spokeswoman Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba told The Associated Press. “If they wanted to then they could provide us escorts to make it safe. That’s what we are asking for.”
The U.N. and international aid groups estimate that almost 150,000 people have been displaced on either side of the border because of tensions ahead of South Sudan’s formal independence on 9th of July.
(Source: The Associated Press)
