Africa News
UN humanitarian envoy expelled from Darfur
Nov 8, 2007, 10:35 GMT
Nairobi - Authorities in Sudan's western region of Darfur have expelled the head of the United Nation's humanitarian operations, media reported Thursday.
Canadian national Wael al-Haj Ibrahim, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nyala, South Darfur, was accused of unspecified rule violations and 'had been forced to leave' by provincial authorities, said the organization's spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker, as quoted by BBC news.
The United Nations has deplored the expulsion, while clarifying that Ibrahim has not been ordered to leave the country by the government in Khartoum, 'but rather has been forced to leave South Darfur,' according to UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe, as quoted by the New York Times.
Last week, the UN witnessed troops and police rounding up 1,000 refugees from a camp on the outskirts of Nyala and forcing them onto trucks at gunpoint and driven into the night to an unknown destination.
The conflict in Darfur, which has pitted the Arab-dominated, Muslim-led government in Khartoum and Janjaweed militias against African Muslim farmers, has killed more than 200,000 people since 2003.
The OCHA is responsible for up to 1 million of the 2.5 million people made homeless by the Darfur conflict.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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