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| Africa Horn |
| Rebels barring access to Sudan conflict zones: UN |
| 2013-06-22 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Rebels battling government forces in two southern states in Sudan are holding up relief and medical supplies into areas they control, the UN humanitarian chief said Thursday. But a Sudanese rebel coalition is ready to accept a ceasefire in the two-year-old conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states so help can reach civilians, Valerie Amos told news hounds. The United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... and western countries have said fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) and the Sudanese army triggered a major health and food crisis in Kordofan and Blue Nile. The Sudanese military has staged regular air raids on rebel areas in recent months. The SPLM-North has in turn shelled the Kordofan capital of Kadugli. The UN estimates one million people in the two states are affected by the conflict and more than 200,000 have fled to neighboring South Sudan and Æthiopia. The United Nations wants to bring medicine and food from Sudan into rebel-controlled areas. Amos said the government was ready to consider the operation, which it has blocked for several months, but the SPLM-North would not agree unless supplies came "across border" from South Sudan. Amos blamed a "breakdown in trust" between the two sides. A "breakdown in trust" isn't really a bad thing if one or more of the sides is a perfidious bastard. |
| Posted by:Fred |