US concern at poor humanitarian access

Flight clearance denials by the government of Sudan had increased significantly in the last several months, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) reported on 3 August. At any given time, numerous locations may be closed by UN security and/or government denial of clearance for Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief flights, it said. “There is significant humanitarian concern that Government of Sudan flight denials are restricting OLS access to parts of Western Upper Nile, where population displacement around the oilfields is increasing,” it stated in its complex emergency situation report on Sudan. “Access to the Nuba [Nubah] Mountains and southern Blue Nile, areas outside the OLS mandate, remains extremely limited,” it said. In addition to the Nubah Mountains and oil-rich Upper Nile, USAID drew special attention to the situation in Southern Blue Nile - “an area of historically heavy military activity”. The region continues to be an active zone of conflict between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), with periodic media reports of attacks by government forces on civilian targets, USAID stated. Since 1988, hundreds of thousands of people from Southern Blue Nile had been displaced to other areas of Sudan, and humanitarian access to the state - which is outside the mandate of the OLS - had been denied by the government, it added. The government of Sudan was also continuing “to use aerial bombing of civilian and humanitarian targets as a military tactic”, according to the USAID situation report. It cited OLS security reports as saying that 195 bombs had been dropped by the government since the start of this year, affecting populations in Bahr al-Ghazal, Eastern Equatoria, Southern Blue Nile, and Upper Nile. “The aerial bombing of civilian targets in southern Sudan has more than doubled since 1999, when there were 65 confirmed aerial bombings,” it stated. In an additional blow to humanitarian access, relief organisations frequently had to evacuate their staff from many parts of Sudan due to insecurity, it added. The government of Sudan had denied accusations that it had intensified its bombing campaign in southern Sudan in recent months, the daily ‘Al-Ayyam’ newspaper reported on 5 August. This year, USAID’s Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) expected to increase funding beyond last year’s levels, expanding programmes in areas which have been historically under-served by the international relief effort, such as the Nubah Mountains, Upper Nile and Southern Blue Nile, according to the 3 August situation report. OFDA’s funding focuses primarily on health care and food security (incorporating capacity-building and self-reliance), as well as having a geographic focus on areas of critical need, it said.