Humanitarian crisis could worsen with flight ban

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday expressed fears of a "worsening humanitarian crisis" in southern Sudan resulting from a flight ban in the western Upper Nile which has entered its second week. The ban was announced by the Sudanese government on 14 July in the five main population and relief centres of Leer, Duar, Boaw, Nyal and Ganyiel. A WFP statement said the ban made most of the region inaccessible to relief agencies trying to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to some 150,000 people. "We are extremely worried that unless the ban is lifted soon, we could be heading toward a humanitarian catastrophe, not unlike the famine last year," WFP's Director of Transport and Logistics Ramiro Lopes Da Silva said. "We are at a lethal mix of a weakened population which cannot be reached and are starting to flee their homes." Following the announcement of the ban, a WFP team was forced to abandon food distributions in Nyal and Ganyiel. The agency said it was "extremely worried" about the fate of hundreds of malnourished and exhausted children they had to leave behind. WFP teams in counties surrounding the affected areas said large numbers of people are living in nearby swamps. "These swamps are malaria hot-beds," WFP in Nairobi told IRIN on Wednesday.