WFP confirms displacement in oil drilling areas

Responding to a recent report by Reuters entitled "Sudan says oil drilling causes no mass displacement", WFP in Sudan on Thursday denied that it was unaware of forced displacements, as stated in the article. In a letter to Reuters, WFP Deputy Country Director Nicholas Siwingwa said that no comment had ever been made to that effect. Siwingwa added that WFP had witnessed an increasing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) requiring food assistance in oil fields in the southern Unity state. Siwingwa put the current number of IDPs in the region at over 36,000 and added that oil interests in the area had exacerbated the uprooting of people from their homes. Roger Winter of the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) a non-governmental organisation, said in a press release that ethnic cleansing linked to oil development in southern Sudan was causing massive civilian displacement. "Tens of thousands of Sudanese civilians have fled from the region during the past year as the government seeks to expand its oil operations," he said.