Fighting rages amid humanitarian ban

Intensified fighting in southern Sudan has raised humanitarian concerns for an estimated three million civilians who are also affected by a recent government ban on relief flights. The Sudanese government on Thursday banned all UN humanitarian flights from Kenya over the Eastern and Western Equatoria regions in south Sudan for an indefinite period, following weeks of intense fighting between its troops and those of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement urged the Sudanese government to lift the ban to prevent "a humanitarian crisis from becoming a famine". "Coming at the same time that the government is stepping up its bombings of civilian areas in southern Sudan, the relief ban heaps one abuse on another," said Jemera Rone, a researcher with HRW. Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a UN umbrella body providing humanitarian aid to the country, said its officials were holding discussions with the Sudanese government in an effort to get the decision reversed. The SPLM/A has also condemned the ban, saying the denial of humanitarian access to civilians in the region was likely to result in "catastrophic consequences for a population already vulnerable to drought, poor rains, crop failures, and frequent aerial bombardments". Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Kenya, in response said the flight ban was imposed only after fighting in the region intensified and the situation "got completely out of control". He added that he hoped humanitarian flights would resume soon, when the current fighting stopped. "We advise them [humanitarian agencies] not to resume flights in the south because fighting is intensifying," Dirdeiry told IRIN on Monday. "It [the ban] is only because of the fighting. Once fighting stops, they can continue." Fighting intensified in the south following the rebel capture of Torit earlier this month, a strategic town in Eastern Equatoria. Sudanese President Umar al Bashir also pulled government negotiators out of key talks and ordered his troops to recapture the town at all costs.