Two UK Aid Agencies Saved from Sudan Expulsion

On 29th November, the country directors of the two UK-based aid agencies - Oxfam and Save the Children- have received a warning from the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry of Sudan that they may be expelled from the country for breaching Sudanese law and interfering in domestic affairs. However, after an immediate appeal made by the United States and the United Nations, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry of Sudan today announced the decision would be postponed.

According to Sudanese law, the NGOs are not allowed to intervene in the country’s political, ethnic or sectarian issues. The Humanitarian Affairs Ministry of Sudan quoted the press releases issued by the two aid agencies as evidence of the accusation.

On Monday morning, a statement from the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry of Sudan said Save the Children had breached Sudanese law by issuing a press release saying a government plane had dropped a bomb close to one of its feeding centres last week in Tawilla town, North Darfur, without waiting for confirmation from African Union cease-fire monitors.

The ministry also criticised Oxfam’s press release on 22nd November, which condemned the failure of the U.N. Security Council resolution in Nairobi, and therefore the European Union (EU) is one of the last hopes for tough action to press the Sudanese parties into stopping the continued violence and insecurity in Darfur.

"The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs views the statements issued by those two organisations as sending signals of support to the outlaws and rebels for continuation of the war," the ministry said. The ministry expected the NGOs to liaise with the government instead of dealing with security issues through the media.

However, this one single condemnation cannot knock down the fact that the two organisations are long-standing and devoted contributors of humanitarian assistance and peace making in Sudan. Save the Children and Oxfam were immediately backed by worldwide leaders who appealed for a review on the ministry’s decision to expel the two organisations.

Save the Children is one of the largest food distributors in Darfur, providing food to more than 300,000 of the almost 2 million in need of aid. Oxfam has been working throughout north Sudan for 20 years and on Saturday the influential governor of North Darfur state praised the agency’s work in the country.

Amid the continued insecurity, in fact many aid agencies have withdrawn from all actions in the troubled Darfur region, however, Save the Children and Oxfam were two of the very few chose to station.

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman in Geneva for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, "We are very concerned about this situation, particularly given the important role played by the two NGOs in alleviating the suffering of the people in Sudan, particularly Darfur."

The United States, which once defined the trouble in Darfur as genocide, said it was troubled by expulsion orders issued to the Sudan country chiefs of Oxfam and Save the Children, and added that Washington would join Britain, the United Nations and others in appealing for the Sudanese government to rescind the step.

Mohamed Yousif Abdalla, the Head of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs today declared that the decision would be delayed until after he returned from a trip to Europe in four or five days. He added "it is an administrative decision which we did not realise all the implications of" and hinted he would give careful consideration on "humanitarian grounds".