News Article by REUTERS posted on August 09, 2000 at 17:13:08: EST (-5 GMT)
U.N.'s WFP says Sudan govt bombs aid facilities
By Philip Pullella
ROME, Aug 9 (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP)
accused
the Sudanese government of deliberately bombing relief
facilities in the
rebel-held south and said two fresh attacks
were carried out on Wednesday.
A spokesman at WFP headquarters in Rome said low-flying
aircraft had
attacked relief facilities at Mapel twice during
the day, dropping nine bombs
the first time and 11 in the second
raid.
A WFP statement said there were no reports of injuries. It
said relief
facilities had been targeted and the organisation
would evacuate its aid
workers from the area.
"These violent attacks are totally unacceptable and we
strongly condemn
them. They show there is no respect for aid
workers trying to help innocent
Sudanese," said Catherine
Bertini, executive director of the U.N.'s food aid
arm.
"It's obvious the attackers don't care whether the hungry
starve to death
or not. If they did, they would not be out to
stop our relief work. After
today's incident, we have no other
choice but to evacuate our staff from
Mapel," she said.
"These incidents follow just days after the government of
Sudan has
repeatedly assured aid agencies that relief workers
would not be targeted,"
Bertini said in a statement.
In Khartoum, the official Sudan news agency SUNA quoted
Sudan's ambassador
to the United Nations as saying his country
was committed to a ceasefire in
southern Sudan. He blamed the
rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) for
violations.
Ambassador Fatih Erwa told SUNA that charges that the Sudan
government was
escalating military operations in Bahr al-Ghazal
region were baseless.
"The charges by those hostile to Sudan, be they the United
Nations or the
Non Governmental Organisations, are without
bases," he said.
The SPLA, which has been fighting the government for 17
years, urged the
United Nations to impose a "no-fly" zone to
stop government planes from
bombing civilians across southern
Sudan.
"In this regard, we urgently call on the United Nations
Security Council
to impose a no-fly zone for (government)
aircraft ... to protect the civil
population and to safeguard
the security of humanitarian relief
organisations, including
their institutions and personnel," the SPLA said in
a statement.
In the statement released in Nairobi, the SPLA said the
bombing was
"tantamount to the use of hunger and starvation of
the innocent civil
population as an instrument of war."
The WFP said Wednesday's incidents were similar to an attack
on Monday in
the same place, in which a U.N. aircraft carrying
workers and supplies was
nearly hit by "a shower of 18 bombs"
after it landed at a nearby airstrip.
The WFP spokesman said more than 15 aid workers from various
relief
organisations in the area would be evacuated.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said the
U.N.-led relief effort Operation Lifeline Sudan
had temporarily suspended aid
flights to reassess the security
situation.
Non-governmental agencies involved in the relief effort
accused the Sudan
government on Monday of carrying out 33
bombing raids on civilian targets in
July.
The government has stepped up bombing raids on the southern
province of
Bahr el Ghazal in recent weeks, since the SPLA's
capture of the government
garrison town of Gogrial.