Local News in Brief : Relief Agency Expelled

Officials of Monrovia-based World Vision International plan to close their offices in Sudan next week after being expelled by the government of the northeast African nation.

The Christian relief organization was not given specific reasons for its expulsion from the continent’s largest nation, according to the organization’s U.S. president, Robert A. Seiple.

However, Bruce Brander, a spokesman for the agency in Monrovia, said, “The general impression is the Sudanese government doesn’t want people to see the problems that they are having in the south (region of the country).”

Last July, Sudan’s attorney general charged that foreign relief organizations were cooperating with a rebel organization, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, which controls portions of southern Sudan.

Seiple told a New York press conference Thursday that the “expulsion places the lives of thousands of people in jeopardy. It’s a very tragic situation.”