Annan secures partial lifting of aid restrictions

The Sudanese government has agreed to relax restrictions on humanitarian access to all but 18 sensitive locations in conflict-affected south Sudan, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week.

"We have agreed that there is a need for comprehensive access, except in 18 locations, where for security reasons, the government believes it is not safe for them to operate," Annan said at the end of a two-day visit to Khartoum on 11 July.

However, he added that these locations would be kept "under review". "As the situation changes, those will be looked at and hopefully opened up," he said. Annan did not give details of the areas.

He said Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir had agreed on the need for "comprehensive" humanitarian access for aid deliveries. "The president and I agreed that food needs to get to the needy, and that humanitarian workers must have free and unfettered access," Annan said.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that, following Annan's visit, access restrictions had been lifted on 23 locations. Although agencies had been allowed to access these locations by road or barge (but not by air), the Sudanese government had previously told aid workers it could not guarantee their safety, the sources said.

However, all "at risk" populations in Sudan should be given unimpeded and sustained access to humanitarian assistance according to the provisions of International Humanitarian Law, the Geneva Conventions and the OLS Beneficiary Protocol, an aid worker told IRIN on Monday.

"We find it unacceptable that violations of these fundamental rights and humanitarian principles are occurring," she added.

Annan said his talks with Bashir had also paid close attention to the current state of peace talks underway in Kenya to bring an end to the country's 19-year civil war. Five weeks of peace talks, held under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), are scheduled to end on 20 July.

"I think we do have a very good climate at the moment," Annan said. "There are very, very encouraging signs."