Aid flights suspended

All relief flights under Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) have been suspended because of the recent government bombing campaign in the south, the office of the UN Secretary-General said in a statement released on Tuesday. “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the security of humanitarian personnel and facilities belonging to Operation Lifeline Sudan...all OLS relief flights have been temporarily suspended, pending a security assessment,” the statement said. The suspension of flights was decided after some 18 bombs were dropped on Monday “in the vicinity of UN-based facilities at Mapel”, despite assurances by the government that bombings of the locations used by UN/OLS would not recur. The statement said the assurances followed earlier bombing incidents in late July that “threatened the safety of humanitarian personnel and relief aircraft”. The Secretary-General “calls upon both the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to reinforce as a matter of urgency the necessary measures to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and civilian beneficiaries throughout the country”. The humanitarian ceasefire which expired in Bahr el Ghazal on 15 July should be reinstated, the statement said. Mapel, 60 km southeast of the Bahr el-Ghazal capital Wau, was bombed soon after a raid on neighbouring Tonj. Tonj marketplace was pounded, with at least six civilians reported killed, the rebel Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army said. A senior UN official told IRIN that there had been claims and counter-claims from the two sides over fighting in Bahr el-Ghazal, which were difficult to independently confirm. But the UN was “obviously very concerned about the effects of bombing on the civilian population”, he said.