Khartoum says SPLA threatening relief flights

Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Sulaf al-Din Salih has said that some 15,000 people were taking refuge from continuing fighting in Western Bahr al-Ghazal, hiding in forests with small quantities of food, the official Sudanese news agency SUNA reported on Thursday. Sulaf al-Din attributed growing problems in Bahr al-Ghazal to the ongoing offensive by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). He claimed the SPLA was threatening relief flights to Wau and Aweil, the major towns in Bahr al-Ghazal. “The rebel movement is aggravating the humanitarian disaster,” SUNA quoted him as saying at a press conference on Thursday.

Sulaf al-Din said there was a growing rate of diarrhoea among the people who arrived in the Timsah area of southern Darfur, having fled fighting in and around the towns of Raga and Deim Zubeir. He appealed for action from the international community to “stop the inhuman acts being perpetrated by the rebel movement”, and called on the UN “to compel the rebel movement not to obstruct humanitarian flights to Bahr al-Ghazal.”