KHARTOUM, 30 October 2003 — Sudan’s government reiterated its commitment to achieving peace in response to a US relief agency’s pledge of increased humanitarian aid, a Sudanese governmental daily reported yesterday.
Khartoum “is fully committed to achieving peace and development,” First Vice President Ali Osman Taha told a visiting USAID official Tuesday, Al-Anbaa reported.
“Peace has become an irreversible strategic option and there will be no return to war,” Taha said.
Following a two-day tour of the Darfur region, Andrew Natsios, an administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), pledged to increase humanitarian aid for thousands displaced by years of unrest, once Khartoum and the southern rebels finalize a peace agreement.
Natsios consented to financing resettlement programs for an estimated displaced 500,000 people, supporting efforts for resolving conflicts and sponsoring development projects, Al-Anbaa said.
USAID also offered 16,000 tons of food, and pledged to offer more in the future, Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed said.
Natsios said his agency spent about $160 million on aid to Sudan during the last fiscal year, and had earmarked more than $200 million for the current year.
USAID’s humanitarian assistance makes up about 80 percent of total aid sent to Darfur, a semi-desert region bordering Chad also plagued by rebellion, according to Al-Anbaa. Natsios said he planned next to travel to a southern region held by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), and then to Kenya where talks between the Sudanese government and the SPLA are scheduled to resume on Nov. 30 after Ramadan.
Darfur’s rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), has not been invited to Kenya, despite the conflict between rebels and government forces in the region that has left some 3,000 people dead this year, according to UN estimates.
However, a trilateral committee made up of the Sudanese and Chadian governments and SLA met in Abeche, Chad, Tuesday to begin reviewing the Abeche agreement for collecting arms from civilians since the declaration of a cease-fire on Sept. 3.
Clashes have been reported since the 45-day truce was agreed, and on Sunday Natsios said USAID had asked the Sudanese government to provide security for its aid convoys to Darfur.
Helicopter Crash Kills 20 in Sudan
A helicopter crash in Sudan caused by a technical fault has killed 20 people, mostly members of the armed forces, Sudan’s military said yesterday.
A statement said the 11 members of the armed forces, a student and crew of eight, also military personnel, were killed when the helicopter crashed on Tuesday near the region of Umm Saiyala, 270 km southwest of Khartoum.
