Sudan ignores appeal from UN Security Council; 400,000 civil war victims cut off from emergency aid

More than 400,000 victims of the civil war in the Sudan are completely cut off from the chance of receiving humanitarian aid, because authorities systematically block the assistance offered. "Exactly five weeks ago, the UN Security Council urgently called on all parties to the conflict in the embattled regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile to let humanitarian aid for the civilian population get through. But Sudanese authorities still today persist in refusing to let international aid workers reach the troubled areas," reported the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Tuesday in Göttingen. "Now it's a race against time as the rainy season, which begins in April, will make it absolutely impossible to provide any form of assistance."

Alarmed by calls for help coming from aid and human rights organizations, the UN Security Council urgently called upon the Sudanese government and their opponents, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) five weeks ago to give humanitarian aid workers immediate access to the conflict area. "It is an outrage that exactly five weeks later to the day, nothing has been done," criticized Ulrich Delius of the STP's Africa section. "Sudan's stalling tactics will claim tens of thousands of lives if something is not done soon."

The Bashir regime has been stringing along the international community with constantly renewed promises. Social Minister Amira Al-Fadil, for example, said on February 19 that certain international organizations would be permitted to visit South Kordofan to assess the need for humanitarian aid. But at the same time, the Sudanese government still today refuses to accept a joint initiative of the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League for providing assistance to the suffering civilian population. So far only the SPLM-N have agreed to this initiative. "Every day of waiting costs another thousand human lives," warned Delius. "Hunger blockades as a weapon of warfare are proscribed by international law. If Sudan continues to prevent aid from reaching its people, the government will be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity." It is not enough for the government to say that the Sudanese Red Crescent can provide aid to the civil war victims, because that aid organization is not seen as a neutral party by those in need. That this mistrust is well founded has been confirmed by UN soldiers, who on June 20, 2011 observed secret service agents, disguised as Sudanese Red Crescent aid workers, removing civilians from the area protected by US soldiers."