The UN has said the Sudanese government has not done enough to fill gaps in humanitarian assistance caused by its recent expulsion of 13 foreign aid groups from the Darfur region.
‘These are band-aid solutions, not long-term solutions,’ UN Under-Secretary-General John Holmes told a news conference called to release the results of a joint UN-Sudanese assessment of the situation in the troubled region of western Sudan.
Sudan ordered the aid agencies out of Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir earlier this month over alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Sudan, which does not recognise the ICC, rejects the charge.
Mr Holmes said that to feed the hungry in Darfur ‘we need to find some proper partners for the WFP if the decision is not reversed’.
The expulsion of aid groups ‘seems to us a reckless act’, he added.
A summary of the assessment, co-signed by UN and Sudanese officials, said four of the expelled non-governmental organisations served some 1.1m people.
Among the groups expelled were CARE, Save the Children-US, Solidarites and Action Contre La Faim.
Those four also managed feeding programs for children and pregnant and lactating mothers at dozens of special centres.
The joint assessment says the services at those centres have been interrupted.
Some 4.7m people rely on humanitarian aid in Darfur, where the UN runs its largest aid operation in the world with the help of NGOs.
Sudan's UN envoy Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem has said Sudanese groups have been filling the gaps and there is no problem with aid distribution.
