UN chief: Sudan interfering with aid work

A former British diplomat who is now the United Nations’ new humanitarian chief has told Sudan to stop hindering the work of aid groups in the country.

John Holmes, who took over on March 1 as UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, inaugurated his term this week with a visit to Sudan at the start of an eight-day trip that also includes stops in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Mr Holmes, a former British ambassador to France, told The Associated Press he had met senior Sudanese officials earlier in Khartoum and stressed the need for the government not to interfere with humanitarian work.

Relations between aid workers and the government had known “good periods and less good periods” over the past three years, Sir John said as he returned from southern Sudan. “This is a less good period.”

Mr Holmes replaced Jan Egeland, who was largely credited for raising world awareness of the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region where more than 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced in four years of fighting between government forces and local rebels.

Darfur had become “the biggest humanitarian operation in the world, of enormous significance”, both for Sudan and for regional stability, Mr Holmes said.