Government investigates bombings

The government has begun investigations into the bombing of two UN aircraft operating for OLS, the Sudanese ‘Al-Ra’y al-Amm’ newspaper reported on Friday. The newspaper referred to a bombing incident on “Wednesday”, presumably 2 August, when two aircraft were attacked while in the air. The report said the UN aircraft escaped by flying higher, and the government “was not sure who carried out the bombing”. The government’s humanitarian aid coordinator, Sulaf al-Din Salih, confirmed in an interview with ‘Al-Ra’y al-Amm’ that the authorities were investigating the incident. Humanitarian sources confirmed to IRIN that two OLS planes had received “near misses” while stationary on the ground in northern Bahr el Ghazal over the last two weeks, but said there had been no reports of aircraft attacked in flight.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma’il said in a newspaper interview that any aircraft bringing aid to Sudan must do so with the permission of the Sudanese government. He said there had been “many violations” committed by voluntary organisations refusing to operate under OLS, including voluntary organisations who “back the rebel movement with arms”. He made the comments in an interview in Amman, Jordan, and published by the Jordanian newspaper ‘Al-Arab al-Yawm’ on Saturday. The accusations against humanitarian organisations come at a time when the Sudanese government and media, in the face of a heightened rebel offensive in Bahr el-Ghazal, are highly critical of humanitarian relief operations in the south, humanitarian sources told IRIN.