6.1 MILLION IN SUDAN NEED AID: UN

Khartoum, 18 Jumadil Awwal 1435/19 March 2014 (MINA) – The United Nations on Tuesday said that nearly 6.1 million people in Sudan were in need of humanitarian assistance, almost half of them in the conflict-stricken Darfur region.

“The international community has a responsibility to respond, to support and to enable humanitarian action,” John Ging, director of operations at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan, told a Khartoum press conference.

He asserted that some 6.1 millions in Sudan, including over 3.3 million in Darfur alone, remained in dire need of humanitarian aid, according to Anadolu Agency report quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

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The Inter-Agency Standing Committee and the U.N. Emergency Directors Group have both just concluded a three-day visit to Darfur.

They attributed Sudan’s deteriorating humanitarian situation to ongoing armed conflict, noting that some 100,000 people had been displaced since January due to on-again, off-again clashes in Darfur.

Ging called on both the government and the Darfur rebels to end the fighting. “It’s the only solution to end the people’s suffering,” he said.

Last week, Sudanese Humanitarian Commissioner Suleiman Abdel-Rahman Suleiman announced that around 54,000 people had been displaced since fighting flared up in Sudan’s North Darfur State. Since 2003, three separate rebel groups have been fighting government troops in Darfur.

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According to a 2008 U.N. report, 2.5 million people had been displaced by the conflict and nearly 300,000 killed. The government, for its part, insists that the death toll does not exceed 10,000.

A conflict in Sudan began on the evening of 15 December 2013, at the meeting of the National Liberation Council meeting at Nyakuron, when Opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng voted to boycott the Sunday December 15, 2013 meeting of the NLC.

President Salva Kiir ordered SPLM Major General Marial Ciennoung, commander of the Presidential Guard (The Tiger Battalion) to leave the meeting venue and return to the barracks to disarm the troops. After disarming all ethnicities within the guard, Marial ordered that the Dinka members be re-armed. (T/P04/E01)

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Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)