Sunday, May 10, 2009

UN aid chief frets about rainy season supplies to Darfur

KHARTOUM (AFP) — UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Sunday that he was worried about getting supplies in place for distribution in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur in time for the rainy season.

Holmes told a Khartoum news conference that the expulsion of 13 foreign aid agencies by the Sudanese government in March following the issue of an international warrant for the arrest of President Omar al-Beshir on war crimes charges had aggravated the problem.

"We are not as ready as we would like to be," the UN aid chief said, as he wound up a four-day visit to Sudan.

"Normally before the rainy season, the agencies and NGOs working there would be prepositioning food and other goods, whatever it might be... because it is very difficult to move around once the rainy season starts," he said.

"Those efforts were delayed by the effect of the expulsions, by the fact that we took some time to get access to warehouses where some of these stores were kept." Read more >>>>>>>>>

No comments: