UN report details “perpetual” battle against misery

Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) will be “condemned to fight a perpetual uphill battle against human misery and deprivation” without the full and uninterrupted cooperation of the warring parties, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his annual report on emergency assistance to Sudan. The report, issued at UN Headquarters on Friday, said the worst effects of the 1998 humanitarian crisis in Sudan - the most serious in 10 years - were in large part contained thanks to “unprecedented” levels of donor support. However, Annan noted that the crisis had been exacerbated by a temporary ban on OLS flights. While cooperation in support of OLS subsequently improved, the initial cause of the tragedy was a breakdown in that cooperation “for reasons of a non-humanitarian character”, the report said.

“It is imperative to emphasise once again that the underlying principles and instruments defining cooperation within Operation Lifeline Sudan must be respected,” the report concluded. During the 1998 crisis, WFP provided more than 112,000 mt of food to approximately 1.5 million beneficiaries using a combination of road, river and air corridors, while OLS agencies provided supplementary and therapeutic feeding to more than 100,000 people and conducted a major measles and polio vaccination campaign to prevent disease outbreaks, the report said.