U.N. staff expulsion to hinder aid to 1 million

KHARTOUM - The expulsion of the top U.N. humanitarian official from South Darfur will hinder efforts to provide aid to some 1 million aid-dependent Darfuris by removing a key member of the aid team, officials said on Thursday.

Wael al-Haj Ibrahim was the 11th aid worker expelled from Sudan this year and the second Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) staff member expelled from South Darfur state in six months.

Al-Haj Ibrahim headed the OCHA office in the town of Nyala.

The forced removals have worried many involved in the Darfur relief effort, the world's largest humanitarian operation, which helps some 4.2 million victims of the 4-1/2 years of revolt.

"OCHA plays a very important role in South Darfur assisting the government, NGOs, U.N. agencies and donors to coordinate assistance for up to 1 million displaced," said OCHA spokeswoman Orla Clinton.

"It is very important to ensure a consistent and timely response. We cannot afford to have gaps at this critical time," she said adding, "We fully support our head of OCHA."

Al-Haj Ibrahim was given 48 hours to leave the state and rebased to Khartoum on Wednesday afternoon.

A source in the aid community in Khartoum said al-Haj Ibrahim's departure was a major blow for the South Darfur operation as many young and inexperienced aid workers relied on his guidance in dangerous working conditions.

U.N. figures show seven aid workers died last month in Darfur, the highest monthly death toll in almost 18 months.

The head of the government Humanitarian Aid Commission in South Darfur, Jamal Youssef told Reuters al-Haj Ibrahim had violated his humanitarian mandate and the neutral principles of the United Nations.

"He was inciting the IDPs and the people against the government," he said.

A Reuters witness had seen al-Haj Ibrahim in 2006 working to calm hundreds of enraged Darfuris during a riot in Kalma Camp and protect a Sudanese aid worker who had been accused of mistranslating during a demonstration.

Angry men armed with knives and sticks beat the man who tried to take refuge in a car. Al-Haj Ibrahim tried to protect the car as it drove away and the crowd smashed its windows. The protesters later hacked to death another Sudanese translator in the camp.


FEAR, SUSPICION

Aid workers in Darfur are afraid of speaking about their work because of the suspicion between authorities and their foreign workers.

Tensions have risen in the past weeks as a result of the arrests in Chad of Europeans involved in an effort to fly 103 African children to Europe.

On Thursday 36 aid agencies working in Sudan's remote, vast region said in a joint statement they condemned the actions of Zoe's Ark, which said it was taking Darfuri orphans to foster homes in Europe.

"This activity is not representative of the work that is conducted by International NGOs in Darfur or our colleagues in Chad," the joint statement said.

U.N. and Chadian officials have said they believed most of the children were Chadians, but Sudanese officials are still saying the 103 children were Darfuri and have called for an international investigation into the affair.

The state-owned Sudan Vision paper on Thursday ran a column entitled "Holocaust of Darfur Children," warning Sudanese to stop listening to foreigners in Sudan and calling the affair the "dirty and disgusting French operation."

"The cursed tree of resorting to the foreigner is pregnant with poisonous fruits the least of which is the debacle and ordeal of our children" the column said.