Global Arab Network | UN: 4 aid groups to return to Sudan

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UN: 4 aid groups to return to Sudan

Sudan has authorised 4 aid NGOs expelled from the country to return to Darfur, according to UN's humanitarian official. The four groups - named as Care International, Save the Children, Mercy Corps, and Padco - were among 13 organisations expelled in March.

Khartoum accused the NGOs of spying and working for the ICC.

Sudanese representatives "have made clear, during my visit (in May) that help from international humanitarian agencies and NGOs is welcome and valued," said John Holmes, head of the United Nations UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

They publicly and privately have said they both remaining and new non-governmental organizations are welcome, Holmes said.

Holmes said 4 of the 13 expelled NGOs took advantage of the new flexibility and "this week completed initial registration processes in Khartoum."

"They now got very recently new registrations and will be restarting their operations," he added.

"We have made some good progress, I think, with the (Khartoum) government in trying to create a more positive atmosphere following the very negative atmosphere" following the arrest warrant, Holmes said.

"Some useful agreements have been reached for example on multi-entry visas for NGO staff which we did not have before."

According to BBC Arabic, Qotbi al-Mahdi from President Bashir's National Congress Party said that they were new organisations and not those which had been banned.

"The Sudanese authorities will tighten the monitoring on these organisations," he said.

Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq has previously said that different branches of the same organisation were free to apply for new registration. For example, the ban only concerned the Dutch and UK branches of Save the Children.

About 300,000 people have died and two million been displaced in the six-year conflict in Darfur, the UN estimates. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

Holmes said it was unclear how soon they would be able to restart operations since local staff may have found other jobs and the aid groups' equipment and assets may have been lost.

Before March, the United Nations and aid groups were running the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur. The expelled agencies carried out 40 percent of humanitarian work in the region, which is roughly the size of France. (AFP, Reuters, Photo:IRIN)

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