U.N. Suspends Aid Operations in Sudan

The World Food Program said Thursday that renewed fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region has forced the U.N. agency to suspend a large part of its relief operations there, leaving 300,000 refugees without aid.

The suspension comes as demand for emergency food in the region increases because no crops were planted in the last season.

The latest fighting between rebels and government forces came despite a cease-fire signed Nov. 9.

The two sides also violated a truce reached in April, according to U.N. officials and aid agencies.

Jan Pronk, the United Nations envoy to Sudan, called for international action against Darfur rebels, saying they should be held accountable for breaking the cease-fire.

“I do really think that the international community should hold them accountable for not complying with international agreements and their own promises,” he said after meeting with Egyptian diplomats in Cairo.

Two million people in Darfur have fled their homes because of the conflict, hundreds of villages have been burned, and the U.N. estimates that 70,000 people have been killed or died of hunger and disease since March.

The U.S. has called the violence in Darfur genocide, and the U.N. has threatened sanctions against Sudan if it fails to stop the violence and rein in pro-government militias.

The two main non-Arab rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, took up arms in February 2003, claiming that the Darfur region had long been neglected by Khartoum. The Arab militias retaliated by burning and attacking villages, shooting men and raping women.

A United Nations report recently underscored the deteriorating security. It says SLA rebels initiated an attack in the northern Darfur town of Tawila, forcing about 45 aid workers to be rescued by African Union peacekeepers.

The report also describes fighting between SLA and government forces inside the Kalma refugee camp outside Nyala in southern Darfur.

There were also reports of relief agency vehicles being held at gunpoint by robbers who stole the cash and belongings of aid workers.

The U.N. said roads used for food aid distribution were unsafe because of fighting and banditry in Darfur.

Citing robberies and other attacks, the World Food Program delayed the scheduled departure Monday of a 25-truck convoy from Fasher, north of Nyala.

But on Thursday, the agency announced that it was pulling staff out of Darfur, describing the situation in the north of the region as “highly volatile” and in the east and south as tense.

It will evacuate staff to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, until security improves.

The U.N. agency distributed enough food to support 700,000 refugees this month, but the suspension will slash the number of people who have access to aid by 300,000.

Humanitarian agencies have complained that Sudan’s bureaucracy slows down aid delivery.

After meeting with Canadian officials Thursday, the government promised to ease the bureaucratic procedures and to help speed up aid.