Landmark aid deal signed

The Sudanese government, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the United Nations system on Saturday signed an historic agreement allowing unimpeded humanitarian access to hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan. "In the whole history of OLS we have never had unfettered access. Some places we know are facing dire conditions and we can expect the demands to be extraordinary," Ronald Sibanda, of the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), said in a statement. The arrangement would last from 1 November and until the end of 2002, when peace talks being held in Kenya under the aegis of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are scheduled to end. "We hope the agreement will continue beyond the current time frame and that this is a start of a new reality," Sibanda said. The World Food Programme estimated the agreement would enable the UN food agency to provide food aid to an additional 558,000 people, on top of the 3 million people already targeted for assistance. Agreement on unfettered access would also allow a polio immunisation campaign due to start on Monday to go ahead as planned, the OLS statement said. A previous agreement, signed on 15 October between the government and the SPLM/A to cease hostilities for the duration of talks, has opened the door to greater access to conflict-affected populations in the south, analysts said. The Sudanese government had in recent months increased humanitarian access denials to locations in south Sudan, and in October banned UN relief flights over two huge regions of the far south, effectively cutting off air access from the main OLS logistics base in northern Kenya to the south. "The people of Sudan have suffered terribly. We now have a chance to make a dramatic change for the better," Sibanda said.