USAID says flight denials "stress" aid delivery

Despite significant improvement in humanitarian access to the south-central Nuba Mountains region, humanitarian flight denials are continuing to restrict aid delivery to affected populations in parts of southern Sudan, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "These denials significantly stress the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Sudan's under-served populations," USAID said in its "Complex emergency situation report for Sudan" on 31 January. Government of Sudan humanitarian flight denials had reportedly increased significantly during 2001 in opposition-controlled locations in southern Sudan, particularly affecting populations in Upper Nile, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, and Eastern Equatoria, USAID said. In the Nuba Mountains region, the humanitarian situation had been "steadily improving" over the last few months, the USAID report said. Following the visit to Sudan in November of the US peace envoy, John Danforth, the Sudanese government agreed to a four-week period of tranquillity in the Nuba Mountains, during which the UN World Food Programme delivered some 2,039 mt of food aid. Representatives of the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army subsequently agreed on 19 January to a cease-fire in the 80,000 square-kilometre Nuba Mountains region to last for an initial period of six months. The cease-fire came into effect on 22 January, and was "holding very firmly", a Sudanese government spokesman said on 31 January. According to USAID, the US government had negotiated an agreement with the Sudanese government that called on the government not to deny access to any flights associated with a campaign to eradicate polio during agreed periods of tranquillity, USAID said. Sudanese officials confirmed on 19 January that the government, along with a number of aid agencies, would carry out a polio eradication campaign in the conflict areas of southern Sudan, which would also allow health teams to conduct polio surveillance to monitor potential outbreaks of the disease, USAID said. However, US government proposals related to tranquillity periods to facilitate the eradication of guinea worm and rinderpest had not been approved by Khartoum, USAID said. The guinea worm parasite gives rise, through contaminated water, to a disease which cripples victims, leaving them unable to work, attend school, care for children or harvest crops. There were some 54,000 cases reported in Sudan last year, almost three-quarters of the global total, with the highest recorded incidences in Western and Southern Kordofan, in the midwest, and southern Blue Nile, White Nile and Sinnar in east-central Sudan. Rinderpest is the most dreaded bovine plague - a highly infectious viral disease that can destroy entire populations of cattle and buffalo, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. In regions that depend on cattle for meat, milk products and draught power, it can and has caused famine, and has inflicted serious economic damage. Rinderpest can be prevented with vaccination, but spreads easily among non-vaccinated herds by way of livestock trade and pastoral migrations.