Sudan prepared to expand aid in Darfur

May 8, 2009, 5:44 GMT

   Nairobi/Khartoum- Sudan is prepared to allow new international aid agencies to apply to work in Darfur to replace those the government kicked out following the indictment of President Omar al-Bashir, reports said Friday.

   Government officials made the promise during a visit by John Holmes, the UN under-secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs, on Thursday.

   'What we're hearing ... is that new NGOs with new names, new logos, if necessary, can come in,' The Sudan Tribune quoted Holmes as saying.

   Sudan's Minister for Humanitarian Assistance Haroun Lual Ruun also said that the UN and international agencies still in Darfur would be allowed to expand their operations.

   Sudan expelled 13 organizations in early March, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam GB, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

   The UN has warned that expelling the agencies, which were providing supplies to millions of Darfuris, could create a humanitarian catastrophe.

   The president accused aid agencies of spying for the ICC.

   The ICC accuses al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried out in Darfur.

   The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribesmen took up arms against what they call decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum.

   The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced. The Sudanese government claims only around 10,000 have died.