Nairobi/Brussels, 14 November 2002: Manipulation of humanitarian
assistance has been used cynically and devastatingly as a war strategy by both sides in Sudan,
though overwhelmingly by the government, throughout the nineteen-year conflict.
There is now an historic opportunity to end these aid restrictions permanently,
but it will require immediate, determined and coordinated action by the
international community. Failure would mean more deaths, and putting Sudan’s
fragile peace process at risk.
Today the International Crisis Group publishes a new report,
Ending Starvation as a Weapon of War in Sudan. It highlights the sordid history of
the use of starvation as a weapon of war and the importance of agreements
signed in October by the government of Sudan and the Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation
Army (SPLA) to permit unimpeded aid
access. The pledges were part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Khartoum
and the SPLA which also committed the parties to ceasing hostilities until the
end of December and resuming peace negotiations at Machakos in Kenya
under the auspices of the regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD). However the two sides have made and broken such agreements a number of
times in the past.
Now a key mid-December meeting provides a vital opportunity
to solve these problems permanently. That is when the Technical Committee for
Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA), made up of UN, SPLA and Sudanese government
representatives, will review the October agreements.
ICG Africa Program Co-Director John Prendergast said: “The
international community, especially the IGAD, UN Security Council and
governments in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the U.S should now unite to support a new
agreement, through TCHA, to allow unimpeded humanitarian access throughout
southern Sudan, and expand that agreement to all war-torn areas of the country.
This would not only save lives but also demonstrate that it can no longer be business as usual
in Sudan’s peace process. Aid must no longer be used as a weapon of war”.
Failure to end the warring parties’ veto powers over where
and when aid is delivered would create an atmosphere of cynicism when the peace
talks, which adjourn this week, resume in Machakos in January, and could in
turn raise the risk of renewed fighting in the coming dry season.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Katy Cronin (London) +44.20.86.82.93.51
email: [email protected]
Ana Caprile (Brussels) +32-(0)2-536.00.70
Jennifer Leonard (Washington) +1-202-785 1601
This report and all ICG reports are available on our website:
www.crisisweb.org
