Many people still facing starvation

A US-based Christian relief organisation has warned that thousands of civilians in areas affected by the country's civil war face starvation as a result of the Sudanese government's continuing restrictions on humanitarian access to southern Sudan. In a statement released on Thursday from Baltimore, US, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) urged the international community to ensure unrestricted access to all populations in need there. The statement said that although the Sudanese government had this week lifted parts of its 27 September ban on UN humanitarian flights in southern Sudan, Khartoum had continued to obstruct humanitarian operations in the country. The ban had affected about 800,000 people in Eastern and Western Equatoria, according to humanitarian sources. An unprecedented 61 sites in the country remain inaccessible despite the lifting of the ban, according to CRS. In Eastern Equatoria, where CRS assists some 375,000 people, humanitarian air operations had been denied for four consecutive years, the statement added. As a result of the frequent bans, local and international organisations under the UN umbrella group of humanitarian agencies called Operation Lifeline Sudan, of which CRS is part, was forced to travel into selected regions of Sudan by land from Uganda, thereby facing "life-threatening danger from roving bands" of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army, CRS said. CRS Executive Director Ken Hackett noted in the statement that he also feared that the obstructions to the delivery of humanitarian aid would spark a disaster similar to that of the 1998 war-induced famine in which an estimated 70,000 people died. "The international community, led by the United States, and members of the OLS agreement, have a responsibility to ensure that all victims of this tragic war receive humanitarian assistance, without further interruptions," he said. "There must be a universal understanding that any political negotiations toward peace in Sudan must include and address humanitarian concerns." The appeal follows this week's passing of a resolution in the US House of Representatives empowering President George W. Bush to impose sanctions on Sudan as part of the efforts aimed at achieving peace there. The Sudanese government has, however, condemned the US resolution. The Sudanese embassy in Washington said the resolution did not advocate for peace, but encouraged the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army to continue fighting, the Sudanese newspaper Al-Anba said on Friday.