20110214
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities on Monday expelled French aid group Medecins du Monde from a state in the Darfur region, accusing it of spying on the government and helping rebels.

U.N. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sudanese security officials raided the group's compound and arrested staff in south Darfur's capital Nyala on Thursday.

Sudan, highly suspicious of foreign intervention, has had a tense relationship with the aid groups that poured in to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Darfur's eight-year conflict between government troops and rebels.

Workers from four humanitarian organisations, who asked not to be named, told Reuters there had been a recent increase travel restrictions and worsening security conditions.

"I announced today my decision to expel the group from the state," South Darfur governor Abdel Hamid Kasha told Reuters.

"Medecins du Monde work as spies. They make negative reports about the state ... They supported the Abdel Wahed Mohamed al- Nur movement with money and food and treatment," he added, referring to one of Darfur's rebel groups.

Medecins du Monde's Paris-based general director Pierre Salignon said he had not received any official notice of an expulsion. "We are a purely humanitarian organisation, trying to reach people in a very difficult situation," he told Reuters.

Medecins du Monde was one of the last aid groups working in the central Jabel Marra region, a rebel stronghold and the scene of recent clashes. Other aid groups say the government has barred access to large parts of the area for a year.