Committee calls for “special zone”

Despite a resumption of UN humanitarian relief flights, serious concerns remain over whether relief operations can survive a government bombing strategy in the south, the US Committee for Refugees said on Thursday. It said southern Sudan should, if necessary, be declared a “special humanitarian zone” with automatic right of access for relief agencies. A statement released by the organisation said US and UN policy makers “should not rest easy” as the viability of the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) remained “in serious jeopardy”. The statement said the Sudanese government still denied OLS access to many needy locations, particularly in western Upper Nile Province, and still accused international aid agencies of being “virtual enemies of the state”. Sudanese officials have asked for an essential OLS base camp in northwest Kenya to be closed, and signalled a desire to impose new clearance procedures, the Committee said. “It is noteworthy that the Sudanese government’s attacks and harassment of OLS efforts this year have occurred in the middle of southern Sudan’s annual ‘hunger gap’ period, when local farmers’ food stocks are lowest prior to harvests”, the statement said. This was part of a pattern of the Sudanese authorities barring international aid to key locations at critical moments. “It is only a matter of time before Sudanese officials take another round of steps to disrupt or irreparably cripple OLS,” the statement said. The US Committee for Refugees warned that the UN and US should be prepared to declare southern Sudan a “special humanitarian zone” with automatic right of access for all life-saving humanitarian efforts.