UN relief coordinator to visit four countries

The United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, arrived in Uganda on Thursday for the first leg of a mission to four countries in the region that are suffering humanitarian crises.

Egeland is expected to meet officials from the government, the donor community and NGOs and assess the humanitarian situation for people who have been displaced by the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the national army. The visit comes amidst reports that 146 people die each week in the north. According to "Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda", a report prepared by 50 aid agencies, the region is one of the world's worst war zones.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Egeland, who is also the UN emergency relief coordinator, would travel to Juba in southern Sudan after visiting Uganda. From Juba, he will travel to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. In the war-ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan, Egeland will meet officials of the African Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross and nongovernmental organisations.

He will also visit a Sudanese refugee camp in eastern Chad before returning to Khartoum, and eventually to Nairobi, Kenya.