Sudanese troops bar U.N. humanitarian chief from visiting Darfur refugee camp

KASSAB, Darfur:
Sudanese troops barred the U.N. humanitarian chief on Saturday from visiting one of Darfur's most violence-plagued refugee camp during his first trip to this war-torn region in Sudan.

The convoy carrying John Holmes was halted at a checkpoint about 1.2 kilometers (0.8 miles) outside the Kassab refugee camp, and he was told he did not have the proper papers to visit the site.

"I'm frustrated, annoyed, but it's not atypical of what happens here," Holmes told journalists traveling with him. He said his trip had obtained all the necessary clearances from Khartoum.

Other U.N. officials working in Darfur said that aid workers and U.N. staff were regularly blocked from doing their work at army checkpoints, and that Sudanese authorities had without motive recently confiscated costly satellite gear from one convoy.

"It's random, but it shows just how arbitrary Khartoum's rule is in Darfur," said one humanitarian worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Read more >>>