U.N. Asks Khartoum for Better Access to Displaced South Sudanese
The United Nations on Monday asked Khartoum to improve access to South Sudanese who have fled fighting in their country and who face deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Sudan.
It is the latest alert raised by aid agencies about access to the needy in Sudan, where unrest had already uprooted people in the Darfur and Kordofan regions and Blue Nile state.
A U.N. statement expressed concern "about reports of rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the sites where newly arriving South Sudanese reside and to which UNHCR and other U.N. agencies have had limited access so far".
The comment came in a joint statement by Ali Al-Za'tari, who heads the U.N. mission in Sudan, and Angela Li Rosi, acting country chief of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
They said the U.N. is ready to support the government and local agencies "in providing protection and badly needed humanitarian assistance to the new arrivals and calls on the government of Sudan to facilitate sustained direct access to them".
Aid agencies estimate that, as of January 27, up to 22,200 people including nomads may have crossed into Sudan from South Sudan, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest weekly bulletin.
They are among more than 850,000 displaced by seven weeks of fighting in South Sudan between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel troops and militia who back his sacked vice president, Riek Machar.
More than 4,100 South Sudanese, nomads and Sudanese have been registered as entering Sudan by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission.
Almost all of those are in South Kordofan, where a rebellion began almost three years ago and access for aid workers has been restricted.
Since 2011, humanitarian staff have not been able to enter from Sudan into rebel-held areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where a similar uprising began.
Late last month, AFP visited the Kilo 10 transit camp in Sudan's White Nile state, where Aman Tital of the Sudanese Red Crescent put the camp population at 8,000 southerners.
Aid groups had provided assistance including shelter and food, but Tital said "there are no toilets".
President Omar al-Bashir said in early January that the border would be opened and South Sudanese were free to enter under an agreement governing the unrestricted flow of people between the two states.
In their joint statement, the U.N. officials welcomed Sudan's commitment to provide protection and assistance to South Sudanese fleeing the war in South Sudan.
But they encouraged the government to provide further clarification.
A separate group of ethnic South Sudanese, almost 20,000, arrived in Sudan well before fighting in South Sudan began in December. They have been encamped in rough conditions at settlements around the Khartoum area.
An aid worker, who asked not to be named, said Sudan's government "has not wanted or allowed regular assistance to be made available" to this group, many of whom have been waiting two years for transport south.
In Sudan's Darfur region, where violence worsened last year, "access restrictions imposed by the authorities also remained a challenge for humanitarian actors", U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reported in January.
On Sunday, Sudan said it had suspended activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) because it violated guidelines for working in the country.
The Humanitarian Aid Commission said it is committed to enabling the aid work of national, international and U.N. organizations "according to their commitment under the law and the procedures governing humanitarian activities in Sudan".