20100817
africanews

Sudan Authority has expelled five humanitarian staff from the United Nations and the Red Cross in west Darfur, aid officials. The aid workers, along with the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation office in the state capital El-Geneina, were ordered to close and back to Khartoum.

"The heads of the UNHCR (U.N. refugee agency) and FAO (Food and Agriculture) agencies in West Darfur as well as the head of UNHCR agency in Zalengei have been asked to leave," said Abdallah al-Fadil, head of UNAMID in West Darfur.

"The government also informed me that it had asked both the ICRC's heads of delegation in el-Geneina and Zalengei (town) to leave too," he told Reuters.

The ICRC's spokeswoman in Khartoum, Aleksandra Matijevic, confirmed the report but said they had been recalled by the Red Cross.

"There has been some confusion with the authorities over a field trip to Darfur. Further to that, the ICRC has recalled its head of offices in El-Geneina and Zalingei in order not to add to the confusion," Matijevic said.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm about the situation in Darfur.

Moon urged the Sudanese government "to ensure that humanitarian access to all Sudanese remains open and humanitarian space protected."

"The secretary-general remains concerned over a string of recent incidents that have contributed to a general deterioration of the situation in Darfur," said a UN statement.

"Abductions and mistreatment of UN staff and humanitarian workers will only aggravate the situation," was said in the statement.

On August 7 Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told the Darfur authorities they could expel any foreigner who failed to respect Sudan's authority.

The international Criminal Court has already issued a warrant for president al-Bashir’s arrest in March and accused him of war crimes in the western Sudan region of Darfur. Bashir denies the charges.

ICC accuses Bashir of running a campaign of rape, murder and other crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The U.N. said the ongoing conflicts in Darfur has killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million other.

The conflict in Darfur has been going on since 2003 when black African rebels began to take arms against the Sudan government.