The Beja Congress has responded to the federal government of Sudan. Seven NGOs have been told to stop work in east Sudan for 30 days,
as reported yesterday on the blog.
Here is the Press Release from the Beja Congress as found on
sudan eyes. Originally available at
Sudanese online .
= = = = = = =
The so called Humanitarian Aid Office (HAO) in Khartoum
announced the expulsion of seven humanitarian aid organizations from
eastern Sudan, claiming their violation of the obligations of voluntary
work. These includes Save the Children of Sweden, the Irish GOAL, Accord
and NATs Roche and the Japanese Plan Sudan.
The HAO has threatened that the government would not tolerate any slip of the organizations to the security laws.
This is not the first time that the authority expels
humanitarian organizations from rural areas of the East, it has already
expelled all aid organizations in its early years of its seizure of
power in 1989, and during and after the war of liberation.
But under strong pressure from the international community, the
government allowed the return of these organization. It is known that
these aid organizations work to provide primary health care and the
provision of food aid in the far remote rural areas, where there is no
trace of any governmental care.
These organizations submit their reports regularly to the authorities, as agreed upon.
But the reports indicate that the humanitarian suffering
continues to increase. Diseases like TB, anaemia, malnutrition and
diarrhea are rising, which results in the increase of mortality,
especially among children and women.
The decision to expel humanitarian aid organizations from the
states of the East, is highly irresponsible, and would result in the
increase in humanitarian sufferings in the remote areas of eastern
Sudan, which are particularly impoverished, poor and underdeveloped.
The government is not even putting in consideration to access
these regions for inspection, not speak of development. They are beyond
its scope of horizon.
The expulsion of the aid organizations that only operate in
eastern Sudan, where they are dearly needed, amounts to genocide through
starvation.
Beja Congress deplores and strongly condemns their expulsion
and calls upon all the activists in the health services, clergy,
community leaders, students and all youth organizations and members of
political organizations to enforce the return of these humanitarian
organizations.
Beja Congress appeals appeals to the international community
and especially to the United Nations, the European Parliament, the
Organization of African Unity and all democratic organizations to
exercise the necessary pressure on the government of Sudan to allow the
return back of these organizations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18296430
Dr Abu Amna
Beja Congress leadership
Alternate source of press release on Sunday, June 3, 2012, at
https://www.facebook.com/BejaCongressUK
The BBC article linked above reads, in part:
At least four aid
organisations have been banned from working in the deeply impoverished
eastern region of Sudan, sources have told the BBC.
An official at the Humanitarian Affairs Commission (HAC), who
asked not to be named, told AFP the non-governmental organisations
being told to stop working in the east were Save the Children Sweden,
GOAL of Ireland, a Japanese humanitarian group and another Irish
organisation.
"The HAC decided to expel four international NGOs working in
eastern Sudan because they failed in their planned projects," the HAC
source told AFP.
The head of one of the organisations concerned told the BBC he was intending to appeal against the decision.
An unnamed Sudanese official told the AFP news agency the aid groups had "failed in their planned projects".
A BBC reporter says Sudan has in the past restricted the work
of foreign humanitarian agencies, accusing them of working to
destabilise the country.
Fears of fresh rebellion
The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says eastern Sudan is a
particularly sensitive subject for the Sudanese government at the moment
because there are fears that a rebellion could break out again. The area is made up of Red Sea, Gedaraf and Kassala
states. But the region is particularly poor and underdeveloped region.
In 2010, donors and investors pledged more than $3.5bn (£2.2bn) to eastern Sudan at
a conference in Kuwait - but frustration is growing because many of its
people say they have not seen the benefits of that pledge or the peace
deal, our correspondent says.
The activities of the aid groups elsewhere in Sudan have reportedly not been restricted.
In 2009 President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the
International Criminal Court for crimes allegedly committed in Darfur,
in the west of the country.
The next day 13 aid organisations were expelled from the country. Senior Sudanese officials often accuse aid workers of
collaborating with the ICC, and unnamed "foreign powers", our
correspondent says.
