The results of Sudan's legislative elections have been delayed and will probably not be published until 30 December, according to the General Election Commission (GEC). Results of the legislative poll and of a vote for the presidency in a simultaneous election had been due for release on 25 December. The elections ran from 13-25 December. A GEC official said publication of results will probably coincide with the presidential announcement on 30 December, AFP said. The GEC said several states had not yet submitted results. A preliminary tally of the presidential poll from several districts showed incumbent Omar al-Bashir winning more than three times the votes for his nearest competitor, former military autocrat Jaafer Nimeri, AFP said. 

A nine-member observer team from the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) commended the General Elections Authority for the recently-held legislative and presidential elections. "The arrangements... allowed the Sudanese people, including those outside the country to freely exercise their democratic rights," said an OAU statement issued 23 December. The OAU observer team also said it congratulated "the Sudanese people in general for their maturity, patience and the disciplined manner which they manifested throughout the process." 

According to the OAU, the team had witnessed various aspects of the process, including administrative arrangements, campaigns and poling activities, as well as holding discussions with all five presidential candidates, and other political parties, including those who boycotted the elections. The team "took note of their concerns, such as the handling of the voters' rolls, the airtime accorded by the government television and radio stations, the high proposing and insurance fees charged to sponsors and their candidates." Other complaints had focused on the lack of sufficient resources for the parties to participate effectively, said the OAU. The report said it would submit the reported and observed problems to the General election s Authority. 

Saying the elections marked an "important step towards democratisation", it noted that there would be some "inevitable" logistical challenges in a country of about 30 million. However, there was no specific mention of war-affected areas, like southern Sudan, where many people were unable to cast their ballot or participate in the process. 

Meanwhile, President Omar al-Bashir said that no power-sharing agreement had been signed with the opposition Umma Party. In an interview to al-Jazeera TV, Bashir said dialogue with the Umma Party was on-going but that a number of issues had to be tackled. Leader of the opposition Umma Party, former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, recently returned to Sudan, saying he would participate in the national peace process. 

But Bashir confirmed that no agreement had been signed with the Umma Party constituting participation in government - as had previous been reported in some of the local and international press. He said that it was not possible to "wait for the return of the opposition abroad indefinitely", said the official Suna news agency on 24 December. Efforts continued to reach agreement with opposition parties, and to establish a dialogue with the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), SUNA said.

The leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, has been invited to visit Britain by the British government. The official Sudanese News Agency, SUNA, said the British government had notified the Sudan government that the visit was part of gathering viewpoints on achieving peace in Sudan. The visit, which was originally set for December, had been postponed and was expected to be made next month, said SUNA on 19 December. 

Brigadier Bushra Al-Fadil Azraq, a member of the opposition National Democratic Alliance, returned to Khartoum on Monday after nine years as a member of the opposition in exile, the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported. 

In a press statement on arrival, Azraq stressed the importance of negotiating with the government. He said the government had made an "honest response to the peaceful political project", which would avert "the risk of internationalisation and foreign intervention", according SUNA. The report quoted Azraq as saying the greatest problems facing Sudan were the war in the south and the economic crisis, and that these could only be solved by convening "a national dialogue conference". 

The government welcomed Azraq's return. Dr Abubakr al-Siddiq, a representative of the presidency, said his return was a signioficant boost to the peace and national accord process, SUNA reported. 

The Sudan government has accepted an application by the French oil company Total to invest in oil exploration in Sudan. The minister of energy and mining, Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, authorised Total to operate in any of the"sites marked out for investment", the Sudanese paper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm', monitored by the BBC, reported on 20 December. 

The minister was speaking after meeting a delegation from Total, which wasin the country seeking investment in oil, said the report.  He went on topraise French investment in gold in Ariab (northeastern Sudan) and Wadial-Shanqir, and in electric power, according to the report. 

Sudan on Tuesday accused Uganda of sending arms to the rebel Sudan thwart Sudan's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council in October. AFP on Tuesday quoted Sudanese External Affairs Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as saying during a news conference that Uganda had allowed NGOs "unregistered with Sudan or with the UN to move arms and ammunition" from Uganda to the SPLA in southern Sudan. He also accused the Ugandan government of "helping the SPLA to recruit children from Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda", according to AFP. 

Isma'il went on to say that "Uganda implements US strategy in the region", which, he said, was "one of the reasons for the deterioration of relations" between Sudan and Uganda. He said he would neverthless attend a meeting in Libya next January with his Libyan and Ugandan counterparts to discuss the prospects for normalising Sudanese-Ugandan ties under an initiative sponsored by the Carter Centre in the US. However, he pointed out that the Ugandan government had "failed to heed a call by the Ugandan parliament to stop assisting the SPLA". "The bilateral relations will improve only if the Ugandan government positively responds to this call," the agency quoted Isma'il as saying. 

Sudan has complained to the Dutch authorities over its support for a planned Christian radio station. According to the government, the station had links with southern rebels, AFP said. 'Al-Ayyam' newspaper said Sudan's ambassador to the Netherlands, Abd al-Halim Babo, had told Dutch Development Minister Eveline Herfkens that the radio station supported the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Babo claimed that one of the SPLA leaders, Taylor Deng, owned shares in the station. 

But AFP said it was unable to confirm whether the Sudan government had officially lodged a complaint with the Dutch government. The Netherlands acting charge d'affaires in Khartoum, Jan Waltmans, told AFP that his country was helping to finance the New Sudan Council of Churches' radio station, but would not confirm or deny a link between the station and the SPLA. The radio station's launch was announced on 14 December. According to Waltmans, the station's agreement with the Dutch provided for closure if it broadcast pro-rebel or anti-government propaganda. "We want the station to be neutral," Waltmans told AFP.

Two more Sudanese lawyers have been detained in connection with the arrest of seven leading opposition politicians in a meeting with a US diplomat earlier this month. The opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (NARD) said Sa'ati Muhammad al-Hajj and Hadi Ahmad Uthman, both members of NARD, had been arrested last week, AFP said. Hajj was reportedly arrested from his office Sunday morning, while Uthman had been arrested three days earlier, sources told AFP. No official reason has been given for their arrest. The arrests brought to four the number of opposition lawyers detained since 6 December when security forces broke up the meeting with the diplomat, who was later expelled.

The government army on Wednesday "liberated" the Kololo, Daloka and Saq al-Damam areas, all in the western mountains of southern Kordofan in central Sudan, from rebel forces. The claim was made by the official spokesman of the armed forces, Lt-Gen Muhammad Uthman Yasin, as quoted by Sudanese television on Thursday. "He said the outlaws incurred massive losses... Their troops fled. Our forces captured heavy weapons, artillery and machine guns from the rebel movement [Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, SPLM/A]," according to the report. The army had also freed "9,000 citizens who had been captured by the rebel movement", who "were being used for domestic purposes and had been forced to serve the rebels," Yasin was quoted as saying. There has been no independent confirmation of this report. 

On the evening of 8 December, a group of worshippers praying at a mosque in Al-Jarrafah village in Kariri Province, north of Omdurman, were subjected to automatic fire, which killed 20 of them and wounded about 40 others, according to Sudanese television, reporting the incident the same evening.  The report quoted two eyewitnesses, one of the congregation and a policemen, as saying there had been several attackers. The policeman, Amin Idris Umar, described them as "wearing black caftans and waistcoats". However, a statement confirming the incident from the official police spokesman, Police Maj-Gen Uthman Ya'qub, quoted by state television on Saturday, said there had been only one attacker. Naming him as Abbas al-Baqir Abbas, the statement said that after the firing commenced, "police surrounded the area, and the culprit exchanged fire with the police, injuring one policeman. The police fired back at the culprit, who had refused to surrender, killing him." 

A report carried by the Panafrican News Agency, PANA, also on Saturday, gave the casualty figures as 21 killed and 55 wounded. It quoted Uthman Ya'qub as saying that Abbas, as a member of the Takfir wa'l-Hijrah sect, had been hostile towards the worshippers at the mosque, who belong to the Ansar al-Sunnah ['Upholders of Orthodoxy'] sect. According to Ya'qub, the Ansar al-Sunnah "preaches the purging of infidel innovations", while the Takfir wa'l-Hijrah "considers contemporary Muslim society infidel" and that it "should be brought back to true Islam by force". PANA reported that the incident was the third of its kind involving members of the two sects since 1996. 

The bombing of civilian and humanitarian targets by the Sudanese government aircraft has doubled this year as compared to last, according to a statement released by the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) in Washington DC on Wednesday. Sudanese air force planes had attacked civilian and humanitarian 132 times this year as compared to 65 times last year, the statement said. Over the past four years Sudanese aircraft had bombed non-military targets 259 times, the report added. The latest attack, on Friday 8 December, the fifth on southern Sudan this month, targeted the southern village of Yomciir, killing two people, one of them an aid worker, according to the statement. 

The statement accused the international community of "failing to take a forceful action" against the government of Sudan. The statement quoted Roger Winter, the executive director of the USCR, as urging the UN to "suspend the government of Sudan for its continuing egregious violations of international law and of the UN Charter". 

Sudan's 10-day long elections began on Wednesday with polling stations opening their doors at 9:00 a.m. (local). The Sudan News Agency, SUNA, reported that the elections had begun "all over Sudan [on] Wednesday, except for the three southern states, for electing a new president for Sudan and 270 members in the new National Assembly out of a total [number of] seats of 360. Some 90 delegates are elected via constituencies for women, workers, farmers and businessmen." The report said that "some 12 million Sudanese voters went to the polls to elect a new president for Sudan from five candidates" whom it named as Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir, the incumbent president, Field Marshal Ja'far Muhammad Numayri, Sudan's president from 1969 to 1985, Dr Malik Husayn, Dr Samaw'il Uthman Mansur and Mahmud Muhammad Juha. 

SUNA quoted the chairman of Khartoum State's electoral committee, Bushra Ahmad al-Shaykh, as saying that during a tour of the state's polling stations on Wednesday "he saw hundreds of citizens rushing to vote in the elections". 

Agencies have told a very different story. The elections are taking place with all the main opposition parties boycotting it. Turnout was very low in Khartoum, with some polling stations remaining empty, according to the Associated Press (AP). People in Khartoum seemed indifferent to the whole process, because they were certain Bashir would win, according to AP. The agency said there was "little doubt" that Bashir and his ruling National Congress party would win. 

Voting was not taking place in the three southern states because they are under the control of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. SPLM/A's Nairobi spokesman, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN on Tuesday that this area "constitutes 45 percent of the country's total territory". It also included the east of the country, and although the SPLM/A was not controlling Kassala, the town was now "deserted".

Agencies noted that none of the main opposition groupings were participating in the elections. Kwaje told IRIN that the eight parties brought together by the umbrella National Democratic Alliance, together with the Ummah Party of Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (who was the prime minister of the government Bashir overthrew in 1989) and the Democratic Unionist Party of Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, "represent 90 per cent of the electorate in Sudan". The fact that the elections involved the remaining 10 percent rendered them "meaningless", according to Kwaje. 

The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has described the peace agreement signed by Eritrea and Ethiopia in Algiers on Tuesday as "a positive step towards bringing peace and stability to the region", according to an OLF statement on the subject, received by IRIN on Thursday. "We feel this is a good step, but we would like the Ethiopian government to also look at the internal situation," OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told IRIN. The war could have been averted had the Tigray People's Liberation Front/Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (TPLF/EPRDF) persevered with the political process it embarked on in 1991, according to the rebel group's statement. 

Bati said that after the overthrow of the former military leader of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, there had been an opportunity for "a new vision in the Horn of Africa", but it was lost because the TPLF/EPRDF had failed to address basic political problems, resorting instead to "marginalising the OLF" and Eritreans. Calling the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict "one of several meaningless wars" in the Horn, the statement urged the international community to address "the root causes" of these problems. The political policies pursued by some of the countries in the region were contributing to underdevelopment, instability and political crisis, it said.

The international community should take the opportunity arising out of the signing of the agreement to address the "chronic political problems of Ethiopia", this being the only way to bring a lasting peace and stability to the region, the OLF stated. What prompted the Ethiopian government to sign the agreement had been the "deteriorating internal economic, political, and military situation", it said. 

In an address to mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton singled out Sudan as guilty of human rights atrocities, news agencies reported. Clinton, who also criticised Afghanistan and China, paid tribute to human rights activists, "who have done so much to publicise the atrocities of Sudan". He said: "America must continue to press for an end to these egregious practices and make clear that the Sudanese government cannot join the community of nations until fundamental changes are made on these fronts." Sudan, for its part, has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit to southern Sudan last month by US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice. In a letter to the Security Council, Sudan said the visit was a deliberate offence. 

The government of Sudan has arrested seven opposition leaders and ordered the expulsion of an American diplomat, accusing the leaders of planning an armed uprising. Sudan ordered the expulsion of the diplomat, Glen Warren, on Thursday, accusing him of discussing security issues with dissidents. He was detained briefly on Wednesday for observing a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella organisation for opposition groups, AP said. Seven Sudanese opposition leaders were arrested and held, and an official statement was issued saying they were "planning an uprising to be backed by armed groups". Ghazi Sulayman, a lawyer and member of the NDA, said the government knew about the meeting, but that the detentions were "tailored by security agencies" to divert attention from "sham elections", AP said. 

Government planes carried out two more bombing raids in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Monday morning. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that two villages northeast of Yirol were hit, in an area not previously targeted.  In the first raid, on a village about 15 km from Yirol, three bombs were dropped, killing two people and injuring three others. The second raid targeted a village about 18 km from Yirol. Five bombs were dropped, but there have been no reports of deaths or injuries from humanitarian contacts in the area, the source said. 

Election campaigning by opposition candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections, planned to take place between 11 and 20 December, will go ahead without interference from the security forces, according to the authorities in Khartoum. Police Maj-Gen Muhammad Ahmad Afi said on state television that security forces would be "very tolerant". Afi said, in an interview monitored by the BBC on 5 December, that the police had offered the candidates "all the opportunities to put forward their election manifestoes and their views without interference". Campaigning in the presidential elections was intensifying, with candidates addressing public rallies and touring with election programmes, state media reported. 

An eight-person observer team from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to monitor the presidential and parliamentary elections, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported. It said the team was led by Ambassador Pascal Gayama, former OAU assistant secretary-general. All the main opposition parties are boycotting the polls and have asked the Supreme Court to postpone the elections, on grounds that the present political situation does not allow for a fair and democratic process. Sudan's parliament was dissolved a year ago by President Umar al-Bashir and a state of emergency remains in force. On Thursday, Sudanese television, monitored by the BBC, quoted the chairman of the electoral commission, Abd al-Mun'im al-Zayn al-Nahhas, as saying the elections would now commence on 13 December, a postponement of two days. 

Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha was due in the Eritrean capital on Monday, Asmara, Omdurman radio reported that day. The report said he "will hold talks with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki within the framework of consultations and efforts being made to strengthen bilateral relations and bolster means of cooperation between Sudan and Eritrea". 

President Umar al-Bashir of Sudan has said that Eritrea is continuing to back Sudanese rebels. According to Bashir, rebels were massing on the common border, and included Eritrean soldiers, the Sudanese news agency, SUNA, reported on Monday. The Secretary-General of the National Congress (Sudan's ruling party), Prof Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, said in an interview with SUNA that the presence of rebel troops on the Sudan-Eritrea border was hampering moves to normalise relations between the two countries. He said there had been positive changes in bilateral relations, but unresolved issues remained. In the interview, published on Tuesday, he said Sudan rejected any military action against its territory and regarded Eritrea's support for the SPLA as "hostile".

Sudan's relations with Ethiopia are moving towards wider horizons of strategic cooperation the political and economic fields. This view was expressed by Uthman al-Sayyid, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, during an interview with SUNA on Saturday.  The ambassador said that, during their meeting on the fringes of the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, President Umar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed that work should begin on drafting a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. Sayyid said Meles had announced Ethiopia's decision to import gas and other petroleum products from Sudan. Sudan and Ethiopia was also expected to sign an agreement to abolish customs dues on bilateral commodity exchanges, and Sudanese entrepreneurs were being encouraged to invest in Ethiopia. The ambassador also said Ethiopia would make use of the harbour facilities at Port Sudan (in north eastern Sudan).

He went on to say that in the near future there would be exchanges of visits by senior officials from the Sudanese ruling party, the NC, and its counterpart, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Within the next few days, moreover, a meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint border committee was due to be held in the capital of Amhara State (Gonder), Sayyid was quoted by Suna as saying. 

In an address to mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton singled out Sudan as being guilty of human rights atrocities, news agencies reported. Clinton, who also criticised Afghanistan and China is his speech, paid tribute to human rights activists "who have done so much to publicise the atrocities of Sudan". He said: "America must continue to press for an end to these egregious practices and make clear that the Sudanese government cannot join the community of nations until fundamental changes are made on these fronts." Sudan, for its part, has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit to southern Sudan last month by US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice. In a letter to the Security Council, Sudan said the visit was a deliberate offence. 

An eight-person observer team from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to monitor the presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place from 11 to 20 December, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported. It said the team was led by Ambassador Pascal Gayama, former OAU Assistant Secretary-General. All the main opposition parties are boycotting the polls and have asked the Supreme Court to postpone the elections, on grounds that the present political situation does not allow for a fair and democratic process. Sudan's parliament was dissolved a year ago by President Umar al-Bashir and a state of emergency remains in force. The election results are due to be declared in February. 

The European Union (EU) pledged 15 million euros ($13.2 million) to Sudan on Wednesday for humanitarian and developmental programmes, AFP reported. The aid was offered for rehabilitation projects on an unconditional basis. The grant follows a year of dialogue between the Sudanese government and the EU on issues such as human rights, democracy, terrorism and foreign relations, aimed at normalising relations. 

The government of Sudan has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit by a US diplomat to southern Sudan. The letter, sent to the Security Council by Sudanese Minister of External Relations Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, said the visit by Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice violated "the domestic laws and international norms that govern the movement of persons between states". It said that, without an official visa, the visit was "incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations and all the domestic and international enactments that regulate... the movement of persons". 

Protesting against the visit to rebel-held areas in southern Sudan, the letter said the move was made while Sudan was hosting a regional summit for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), at which Sudan peace talks were at the top of the agenda. The US timing was "irresponsible" and deliberately chosen to cause offence, the letter said. The bulk of the letter to the Security Council emphasised allegations by the government of Sudan that the US government was supporting the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). It stressed "the Sudan's repeated assertions that the United States was biased, that it was providing the rebel movement with financial and logistic support and that it was, therefore, unfit to play the role of mediator in the efforts to bring about peace". 

Election campaigning by opposition candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections planned for 11 December will go ahead without interference from the security forces, according to the authorities in Khartoum. Police Maj-Gen Muhammad Ahmad Afi said on state television that security forces would be "very tolerant". Afi said, in an interview monitored by the BBC on 5 December, that the police had offered the candidates "all the opportunities to put forward their election manifestoes and their views without interference". Campaigning in the presidential elections was intensifying, with candidates addressing public rallies and touring with election programmes, state media reported. 

President Umar al-Bashir of Sudan has said that Eritrea is continuing to back Sudanese rebels. According to Bashir, rebels were massing on the common border, and included Eritrean soldiers, the Sudanese news agency, SUNA, reported on Monday. 

The Secretary-General of the National Congress (ruling party), Prof Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, said in an interview with SUNA that the presence of rebel troops on the Sudan-Eritrea border was hampering moves to normalise relations between the two countries. He said there had been positive changes in bilateral relations, but unresolved issues remained. In the interview, published on Tuesday, he said Sudan rejected any military action against its territory and regarded Eritrea's support for the SPLA as "hostile". 

The Ethiopian government says it has agreed to send a delegation to Algeria on 12 December in connection with ongoing peace negotiations with Eritrea, at the invitation of Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika. However, diplomatic sources told IRIN that there was no stated commitment on the part of Ethiopia to sign a peace agreement. UN sources also say there has been no official confirmation of Ethiopia's commitment to sign. 

Since the cessation of hostilities accord, signed by Ethiopia and Eritrea on 18 June, the two sides have held inconclusive "proximity talks" – which involve facilitators shuttling between representatives from the two sides in different rooms. However, a military meeting held in Nairobi by the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) on Saturday, saw military leaders from the two countries agree on key issues. 

The Eritrean government said on Monday that it had accepted the invitation to participate in the signing ceremony in Algiers, which would be attended "by senior officials from the US, the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity". 

Government planes carried out two more bombing raids in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Monday morning. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that two villages northeast of Yirol were hit, in an area not previously targeted. In the first raid, on a village about 15 km from Yirol, three bombs were dropped, killing two people and injuring three others. The second raid targeted a village about 18 km from Yirol. Five bombs were dropped, but there have been no reports of deaths or injuries from humanitarian contacts in the area, the source said. 

About 20,000 Sudanese Catholic refugees accommodated at the Kakuma camp, northwestern Kenya, will switch diocese. From January 2001, the refugees will be administered by the Kenyan diocese of Lodwar, northern Kenya. Since the establishment of the camp in 1992 they were under the administration of the diocese of Rumbek, Bahr el Ghazal, headed by Bishop Caesar Mazzolari. The Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO), said on Tuesday that Bishop Mazzolari had conveyed news of this change to the new bishop of Lodwar, Dr Patrick Harrington, during a confirmation service at the camp as his last official function there. 

Rumbek diocese had, during its tenure, built a hall with solar-powered lighting where students could study after dark, as well as other church-related, structures. SCIO quoted Bishop Mazzolari as saying his diocese would not ask for any compensation for any of the assets it would be handing over to the new administration. "Everything we did here was for the people of God," he said. The camp houses a total of about 85,000 refugees, most of whom are Sudanese, with the remainder from Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the DRC.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders said they had agreed to a final peace pact to formally end the border war. An agreement, brokered by US envoy Anthony Lake and the OAU, was expected to be signed in Algiers on 12 December, news agencies said. Details of the pact, which include formal demarcation of the disputed border, were confirmed in a letter US President Bill Clinton sent to the leaders of both countries on 1 December. 

Official statements released by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments said on Monday that a "comprehensive" peace agreement would be signed in Algiers on 12 December. 

Sudan's relations with Ethiopia are moving towards wider horizons of strategic cooperation the political and economic fields. This view was expressed by Uthman al-Sayyid, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, during an interview with the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, on Saturday.  The ambassador said that, during their meeting on the fringes of the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, Presidents Umar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed that work should begin on drafting a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. Sayyid said Meles had announced Ethiopia's decision to import gas and other petroleum products from Sudan. Sudan and Ethiopia was also expected to sign an agreement to abolish customs dues on bilateral commodity exchanges, and Sudanese entrepreneurs were being encouraged to invest in Ethiopia. The ambassador also said Ethiopia would make use of the harbour facilities at Port Sudan (in northeastern Sudan). 

He went on to say that in the near future there would be exchanges of visits by senior officials from the Sudanese ruling party, the National Congress (NC), and its counterpart in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Within the next few days, moreover, a meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint border committee was due to be held in the capital of Amhara State (Gonder). Another meeting of the committee, to be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, was scheduled for April 2001, Sayyid was quoted by Suna as saying. 

First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha was due in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The report said that  he "will hold talks with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki within the framework of consultations and efforts being made to strengthen bilateral  relations and bolster means of cooperation between Sudan and Eritrea". Earlier, on Saturday, the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, quoted the secretary-general of the ruling party, the National Congress (NC), as saying that the visit "affirms Sudan's keenness to normalise its relations with Eritrea". It added there was "no contradiction between the military defence of the homeland and normalising relations with the neighbouring countries."

Court officials in Sudan said the Supreme Court would consider a suit filed by the opposition alliance demanding the postponement of this month's general elections, the BBC reported on Sunday. A lawyer for the opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, Ghazi Sulayman, said the suit argued that the General Election Commission (GEC) could not conduct the forthcoming elections in the absence of a parliament, as it was answerable to both the parliament and the president. Parliament was dissolved a year ago (on 12 December) by President Umar al-Bashir. A Supreme Court judge said a copy of the suit had been sent to the GEC and a hearing would be held on Wednesday. Sudan's presidential and general elections are scheduled to be held from 11 to 20 December, the report said. 

The same court had also decided to study a case filed by another lawyer, Mahmud Sha'rani, contesting the GEC's endorsement of President Umar al-Bashir and former President Ja'far Numayri as presidential candidates, AFP reported on Sunday. The lawyer had complained "that Bashir, as incumbent president, could order all state employees to vote for him, while slamming Numayri's nomination as a 'provocative insult' to the Sudanese people, who rose in a popular uprising and overthrew him in 1985". 

An 11-member delegation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), led by the organisation's former secretary-general, Ambassador Gayama, is due to arrive in Khartoum on Tuesday to observe the presidential and presidential elections. This was reported to the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, by the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, Uthman al-Sayyid, on Tuesday. He said that the delegation "will tour all the [26] states in Sudan to observe the electoral process towards submitting a report on its mission to the OAU secretary-general, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim". 

The State of Qatar has resumed imports of meat from Sudan. The importations have been resumed after a regional ban was imposed by the Gulf States due to Rift Valley fever. The undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Livestock, Dr Muhammad al-Jabalabi, said that Sudan was continuing its meat exports to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Sudanese television said on 1 December. Jabalabi also said there were "extensive contacts" between Sudanese meat exporters and the Saudi Arabian authorities with a view on lifting the ban on Sudanese exports of live animals "after Rift Valley fever had been put under control". 

The Sudanese government has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to protest against the visit to the country by US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan Rice, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The station quoted External Relations Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as describing Rice's visit to southern Sudan "without the official permission of the government" as "a violation of Sudan's national sovereignty". Isma'il said he had sent copies of the protest note to the secretaries-general of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Organisation of African Unity, the report added. 

Sudanese government planes carried out several bombing raids in the Eastern Equatoria region at the weekend, demolishing part of a school and causing people to flee in panic, humanitarian sources said on Monday.  The attacks began on Friday in Twic county, when 14 bombs were dropped in three raids, hitting the Panlit missionary school. Two classrooms were demolished and most of the 700 children at the school fled into the bush in panic or returned to their villages. A spokesman for the Sudan Production Aid (SUPRAID) non-governmental organisation, which works in the area, told IRIN the children were slowly trickling back from the bush, but they were too afraid to resume classes. On Saturday, more bombing raids took place near Turalei, causing mass panic. One old lady died of shock, but no other casualties have yet been reported. [For full story, see separate IRIN item of 27 November, headlined "Schoolchildren flee  government bombing raids"]

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has welcomed the return to Sudan of opposition leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi of the opposition Ummah party, the official Sudanese news agency reported on Friday, 24 November. Bashir said the ruling National Congress party and Ummah were close to an agreement, and affirmed that al-Mahdi could participate in the political life of the country in the government or in opposition, SUNA stated. Al-Mahdi met with Bashir on Saturday and discussed how to end the civil war in Sudan, Reuters news agency reported. The Ummah party leader, deposed by Bashir, returned to Sudan on Thursday after a four-year exile in Eritrea and Egypt.

The cessation of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea is holding, but does not constitute either a ceasefire or a negotiated peace settlement. Special Representative of the Secretary-General Legwaila Joseph Legwaila told reporters during a visit to Eritrea that the cessation of hostilities functioned like a ceasefire while the two parties engaged in dialogue, and compared it very favourably to other regional ceasefires. "This one is almost a perfect cessation of hostilities," he said. 

The Special Representative of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said it had taken a lot of discipline for both sides to maintain the agreement signed on 18 June because the opposing forces were "so close in certain areas... as to shout at each other, but they have not shot at each other." Legwaila said he did not doubt that the two leaders were genuine in their commitment to the peace process, but urged them to resolve the dispute, exchange political prisoners and deportees, and start normalising the situation between the two countries.

All parties in Sudan have been encouraged to show more seriousness in efforts to bring peace. The regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ministerial council, meeting in Khartoum, urged the IGAD committee to accelerate its efforts to reach a peaceful solution in Sudan, the official SUNA news agency said on 22 November. The draft decision, presented by Kenya, was approved in the second session of the ministerial council on Wednesday. Sudanese External Relations Minister Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said in a press statement carried by SUNA that the Kenyan foreign minister had presented the report, which praised the role of IGAD and its partners for mediating talks between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). According to Ismai'l, the ministerial meeting also discussed the joint Libyan-Egyptian initiative, and stressed the need for coordination between the two peace initiatives. 

The last round of peace talks mediated by IGAD in Kenya in October proved inconclusive. 

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice said the government of Sudan should immediately halt the bombing of civilian targets. She made the remarks after a two-day visit to southern Sudan. Rice also called on the government to "stop the heinous practice of slavery", said a report made available to IRIN by the US Department of State. Despite promises by the government to reform its policies and improve its human rights record, there was "precious little evidence" to support its claims, said Rice. The United States continues to have in place unilateral economic sanctions against Sudan and UN Security Council sanctions on Sudan - over accusations of hosting terrorists - remain, said the report. Rice said the US would continue its support for people in Sudan, and was the country largest humanitarian donor, having contributed more than US $1,000 million in the last ten years. 

The visit of Rice to southern Sudan resulted in the withdrawal of visas for US diplomats by the government in protest that she made the visit without a visa. 

Somalia has taken up its seat at the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit for the first time in more than a decade of civil strife. Interim Somali President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan arrived in Khartoum on 23 November, sources close to the Somali government told IRIN. Members of the Somali cabinet travelled with the president, including Foreign Minister Ismail Mahmud Hurre 'Buba'. The summit will begin on Thursday at ministerial level on Thursday.  Ethiopia was until very recently opposed to the seating of the transitional government at the IGAD summit, diplomatic sources told IRIN. It has called for the new government to involve Somali factions who boycotted the Djibouti-hosted talks which elected the new government.

The Sudanese government said it had barred the US chargé d'affaires from entering the country in protest at a visit by US Assistant Secretary of State of African Affairs Susan Rice to southern Sudan. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said Rice had visited southern Sudan from Nairobi without obtaining an official permit from the Khartoum government, news agencies reported on Tuesday. The government cancelled multiple entry visas for chargé d'affaires Raymond Brown, presently in Nairobi, and other US diplomats, the Sudanese daily Al-Sahafi Al Dawli said. The foreign minister later told reporters in Khartoum that Rice had applied for a visa which was rejected, and proceeded anyway, AFP said . Ismail charged that Rice was being deliberately misleading by attempting to "demonstrate to the world" that slavery existed in Sudan, AFP said. He added that the areas under government control were "open to every official to acquaint himself of the situation there". 

A US State Department spokesman said that Sudan's retaliatory revocation of visas was "unfortunate" and unwarranted, news agencies later reported. The spokesman told reporters that Rice did not have a visa when she visited southern Sudan to look into slavery and other humanitarian matters, but said Khartoum had been informed of her visit. "She used procedures followed by past visitors, including American officials and international relief personnel", he told AFP. Rice met with "former slaves" and had "no doubt that slavery continues to exist", said the spokesman. 

Rice visited Marial, western Bahr el Ghazal, and Lui hospital in Western Equatoria, southern Sudan, humanitarian sources told IRIN. 

A supervisor for the polio vaccination campaign in Sudan was killed during a bombing raid in Parajok, Torit, eastern Equatoria on 22 October. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the killing - which has just come to light - happened during the national immunisation campaign when the government and rebel factions agreed to a "period of tranquillity". Mark Odera was a local volunteer and supervisor, working for the polio campaign carried out in Parajok under the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to the source, Odera was "delivering details of the results of the campaign" when he was killed. During the "period of tranquillity", the Sudanese government continued to bomb southern Sudan, which UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy condemned as "a violation". 

Some 400 soldiers from Sudan's opposition Umma Party have crossed the border from Eritrea and returned to Sudan's eastern Kasala region. Umma spokesman Abdul Rasoul el Nur told reporters in Kasala that the returning Umma soldiers would be moved to a camp in Fao region, west of Kasala, Panafrican News Agency (PANA) said. The contingent of some 400 men constitutes the last returning batch of Umma soldiers, allied to former Prime Minister Sadik el Mahdi. They have agreed to return to Sudan based on an accord for further negotiation of a return to democratic rule in Sudan, signed late 1999. In July, a similar group closed its camps in Ethiopia and returned to Sudan, PANA said. The "declaration of principles" accord between Mahdi and the government was brokered by authorities in Djibouti. A number of Umma party leaders, including General Secretary Omar Nur el Dayim, have returned to the country and started talks with government representatives. Mahdi has withdrawn from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and said he would return from exile later this month. 

Sudanese government planes have again bombed the Western Equatoria market town of Yei, southern Sudan, on Monday afternoon, according to humanitarian and media reports. Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), an aid organisation working in the area, told the BBC that 18 people died in the attack, and more than 50 were injured. According to NPA spokesman Dan Eiffe, the planes dropped 14 bombs in a market area. "Apparently the bombs landed smack in the middle of a market place. It is carnage," he told the BBC.

The attack on Yei comes after complaints by international organisations and aid agencies that the Sudanese government has targeted civilian and humanitarian sites in a bombing campaign in southern Sudan. Yei, Western Equatoria, was described by the BBC as one of the biggest strongholds of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). 

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been meeting in Khartoum since Saturday, 18 November, with experts on economics, agriculture and politics taking part, the official Sudanese news agency SUNA said. IGAD Executive Director Dr Atallah al-Bashir said the meeting would "serve as a preparatory meeting for IGAD's ministerial meeting and the IGAD summit," the report stated. Delegates would also discuss food security projects and ways to implement them, the agency added. The meeting is being attended by representatives from IGAD member states: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. 

UN Security Council Resolution 1054 of 26 April 1996 called on all international and regional organisations not to convene any conferences in Sudan, in protest at the country's non-compliance with efforts to find those responsible for an attempt on the life of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a visit to Ethiopia in 1995, and its alleged sponsorship of international terrorism. 

East African leaders plan to meet in the Khartoum to discuss the next round of Sudanese peace talks. Hamad Bashir, the IGAD executive secretary, told journalists that the meeting in Khartoum would review an IGAD proposal on solving the problems in southern Sudan and ending the armed conflict, AFP said. Several inconclusive rounds of negotiations between representatives of the Sudan government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have been held under the auspices of IGAD in Nairobi. Hamad Bashir arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday at the head of a delegation to make preparations for the IGAD-sponsored summit scheduled for 23 November, AFP said. He told the Sudanese press that IGAD had no objection to mediation bids from other parties, and that an offer by the US to host peace negotiations had been welcomed. 

The governor of Kassala State, eastern Sudan, said more than 1,000 southern rebels carried out the attack on Kassala. Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid said in an emergency session held by the legislative council of Kassala State that there had been a total of 52 military and civilian deaths, according to the official news agency, SUNA. The many wounded in the attack had received treatment at a number of hospitals. According to the governor, "captured rebel elements" had revealed that their plan was to overrun the regional military headquarters. He said the SPLA had planned to stir up "havoc and terror" by looting the marketplace, private companies and banks. According to the SUNA report issued 14 November, the attackers had also planned to blow up the Qash bridge, destroy the water supply system and power plant and capture Kassala State radio. 

Meanwhile, Minister of National Defence Bakri Hasan Salih has visited the Red Sea area and met officers and troops. Travelling with a delegation from the general command of the armed forces, the minister praised the forces for ridding the area of "aggressors", Sudanese state television said.

Former Sudanese Prime Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi plans to return to Sudan next week. He announced his plans to foreign journalists in Cairo on Wednesday. However, he said he would not participate in next month's parliamentary and presidential elections, which he called "a one-team football game", according to Reuters. He told journalists the elections were "a non-event" and that his opposition Ummah Party would boycott them. According to Mahdi, democracy should be restored to Sudan through negotiations, while and political mobilisation would serve to bring pressure to bear on the government. His return will end four years of exile. Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi was overthrown in 1989 in a military coup led by the current president, Umar al-Bashir. He spent almost seven years either in jail or under house arrest, then fled to Eritrea in December 1996. 

Sudan reportedly has the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world, with estimates of about 4 million. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a report made available to IRIN that the 30-year old conflict in Sudan had gone through several phases and had created a complex IDP situation with different causes of displacement in different regions of the country. "People have become displaced both by the armed conflict and by natural disasters, including temporary displacement caused by flooding... Traditional nomadic migration patterns and large groups of the general population on the move in search of emergency assistance complicate assessments of the IDP situation," said the report. The IDP situation has worsened since 1998 when a major humanitarian disaster was coupled with fighting in and around the main city of Wau, in Bahr al-Ghazal. The report also mentions the documentation of "gross human rights violations" in areas in which foreign oil companies have exploration rights. 

Updated information released by the Global IDP Database of the NRC said UN estimates for government-controlled areas suggested there were some 1.8 million IDPs in Khartoum State, 500,000 in the east and the transition zone, and 300,000 in the southern states.  According to the report, "systematic data for IDPs in opposition-held southern areas is not available". But USAID figures from a survey in 1994 confirm the presence of 1.5 million IDPs in the southern sectors, said the report. The main causes of displacement listed in the report include armed factions, tribal militias, opposition divisions, exposure to military activity, and attacks on civilian settlements. 

The Sudanese government has asked non-governmental relief organisations to temporarily suspend activities in the eastern border town of Kassala. The state minister of relief, Chol Deng, was reported by the state media as saying the move was necessary for security reasons. A large number of local, non-governmental and international aid agencies work in Kassala, near the Eritrean border, providing assistance for thousands of refugees at a number of camps. 

A UNHCR spokesman said in Geneva on Friday that the agency had relocated virtually all its local and international staff from Kassala to Showak, further inland, after Kassala came under artillery fire before dawn last Wednesday. According to the spokesman, shells exploded in the immediate vicinity of the UNHCR office. During the attack, plainclothes Sudanese army officers raided the UNHCR office, detained two local staff and seized communications equipment. Both have since been released, said the spokesman. UNHCR was assisting an estimated 27,000 Eritrean refugees in the Kassala area and, because of a registration process, had "an unusually large number of staff in Kassala at the time".

Sudanese authorities are investigating the attack on Kassala, where more than 130 people were killed in fighting between government forces and rebels on Wednesday. Commissioner of Kassala province Mohammad Yusuf said on state television on 9 November that 52 civilians and soldiers had been killed in the fighting. State media reports said 80 fighters from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) were also killed, and state television showed bodies of the rebels. The commissioner said 433 civilians and soldiers had been wounded in the battle for the town, but that it was now back in the hands of the government. "There is complete calm, stability and security in Kassala and the surrounding areas," Yusuf said. State television showed many houses and public office buildings that had been completely or partly destroyed in the fighting. 

The Sudanese authorities would determine whether government forces had failed to carry out their duty effectively, news agencies and local newspapers said at the weekend. According to local news reports, Sudanese security forces were still conducting operations to flush any remaining rebels out of the border town.

A spokesman for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) confirmed from the Eritrean capital, Asmara, that the Sudanese government had regained control of Kassala, eastern Sudan. Spokesman Yasir Arman said NDA forces had "withdrawn" on Thursday morning. More than 400 government soldiers had been killed, claimed the spokesman, and military garrisons and command posts around Kassala had been "demolished". He said NDA forces had shot down two helicopter gunships and captured 13 tanks and more than 2,000 rifles. The NDA links northern opposition groups with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and has an office in Asmara, Eritrea. 

Two people were killed and 11 people injured in a renewed bombing of Narus, southern Sudan, on 9 November. A statement issued by the Diocese of Torit said two people were killed, and four women and seven men seriously injured when an Antonov plan dropped 10 bombs on two locations in Narus. The injured people were immediately evacuated to ICRC Lopiding Hospital in Lokichoggio, northern Kenya, by the African Medical Research Educational Fund (AMREF).

The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) called on the international community to take action against the government of Sudan over recent bombings and human rights violations. In a meeting in Nairobi, 6-8 November, the NSCC executive committee met with international partners and issued a statement condemning the bombings and abuses related to the exploitation of oil. Participants in the Nairobi workshop said they "strongly condemned the bombing of civilians, hospitals, schools, NGO compounds, food distribution centres and markets". They urged the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to declare a military no-fly zone over south Sudan, southern Blue Nile and southern Kordofan. It also condemned "human rights violations related to the exploitation of oil", saying many people had been killed, tens of thousands had been displaced, with frequent air raids reported.  "The sharing of resources, especially oil, has been identified as one of the root causes of the 17 year war," sa! id!   the statement. It called on the government and the oil companies to immediately suspend all oil-related action "until such time that there is a peace agreement". 

An agreement to explore and produce oil in Malut, southern Sudan, was signed on 11 November between the ministry of energy and mining and a group of companies represented in the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, the Khalij-Sudan Company, the Sudanese Petroleum Company, and an Emirates company. The area involved is estimated to be about 75,000 sq km, Sudanese state media reported. Sudanese Minister of energy and mining, Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, signed the agreement on behalf of the government and emphasised that Sudan welcomed all investors. The Gulf companies involved hold a 46 percent stake in the investment, Reuters said. The Chinese company has 23 percent, and two Sudanese companies, Al Than and Sudapet, hold 23 percent and eight percent respectively. Sudan produces about 185,000 barrels per day of crude oil and began exports in August 1999. It had previously been importing oil and oil products for about US $300 million a year, eating up most of its export earnings, th!   e !  Reuters report said.

Sudan Animal Resources Minister Dr Abdallah Muhammad Sid Ahamad said Qatar had lifted sanctions imposed on Sudanese livestock and meats, following an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in the Gulf states. According to the Sudanese news agency Suna, the minister made the announcement after returning from a tour of Arab states, including Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. His mission had been to reassure the states which had imposed the regional Rift Valley fever ban that Sudanese meat was free of disease, Suna said. The minister said during his visit to UAE he held high-level meetings, including with the crown prince, and that matters of animal wealth and green fodder had been discussed. The lifting of the Rift Valley fever ban on Sudan by Qatar has not been confirmed by other sources.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Somali interim president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, have agreed to mediation efforts by Sudanese minister of external relations, Mustafa Uthman Ismail. According to the Mogadishu-based "Qaran' newspaper, monitored by the BBC, Sudanese President Omar Hasan al-Bashir was due to talk to President Hasan in Doha on Sunday, where they were both attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). The Somali president was expected to accompany the Sudanese foreign minister to Addis Ababa on Monday to meet with Meles Zenawi. Sudan has urged the new Somali administration to stop issuing hostile statements against the Ethiopian government, said the 'Qaran' report on 12 November. It said relations had soured between the Somali and Ethiopian governments since the establishment of the interim Somali administration in September. Ethiopian troops are present in the Bay and Bakool regions of southern Somalia, and have built up a presence along the common border, diplomatic sources told IRIN. 

Government forces on Thursday claimed to be in control of the city of Kassala, 400 km east of the capital Khartoum, after driving out rebels who had claimed its capture on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reported. "The government and army are in control," it quoted a city resident as saying. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was in place, in addition to a state of emergency, but residents were on Thursday preparing to go to work again, the report said.  The rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - a political and military grouping of Muslim opposition groups from the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in the south - had said its forces captured Kassala before dawn on Wednesday morning after a day and night of heavy fighting. Sudanese Minister for Information and Culture Ghazi Salah al-Din also said on Wednesday that "the entire forces" of the insurgents belonged to the SPLA, and not the NDA. 

Rebels have never before controlled Kassala, which lies on the main road between Khartoum and Port Sudan, along which all Sudan's imports and exports pass, the BBC reported. Eritrea has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the NDA (based in Eritrea) and the Sudanese government, with which it resumed ties earlier this year after a break of six years amid accusations that each supported the other's rebel movements. Sudan had agreed in principle to certain Eritrean proposals, but the NDA has reportedly insisted of Eritrea that it secures "something in writing" from the Khartoum government on a new constitution, democracy, human rights and a transition government before it will engage in talks. 

The Sudanese government will urge the UN Security Council to lift diplomatic and economic sanctions against it after more than four years, despite the threat of the US blocking any such move with its veto in the Council, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Khartoum on Wednesday. He said the US had sent Sudan a message threatening to use its veto on 15 November if Khartoum requested a lifting of the sanctions, imposed in 1996 in the wake of Sudan's refusal to hand over suspects in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, and its alleged assistance and support for terrorist elements. "We will present our request on the scheduled date unless we feel that the outcome will not be in Sudan's interest, and in this case we will postpone but not altogether abandon the request," Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ismail as saying. The foreign minister said dialogue with the US would not stop, and relations would "never be as bad as they were before," it added. 

The sanctions restricted the movement of Sudanese officials abroad, cut the number of diplomatic missions in and to Sudan, and called on international and regional organisations not to hold conferences in Sudan, according to Resolution 1054 of the Security Council on 26 April 1996. Even so, Sudan was planning to host a summit conference of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (which has Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda as members) next week, AFP reported. 

Foreign Minister Ismail on Wednesday told reporters that Uganda was procrastinating over the implementation of an agreement reached in September to normalise relations between the two countries, which have been strained by the support of each for rebel movements in the other. A technical committee meeting to discuss implementation was twice postponed in October, and Ismail on Wednesday rejected Uganda's explanation that this was due to an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola in the north of the country.  Ismail also said Uganda had rejected a Sudanese diplomat nominated to operate from the Libyan embassy in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and had not yet named an envoy of its own to operate from the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum, as agreed in the reconciliation pact. Despite "the Ugandan procrastination", Sudan was committed to honouring its responsibilities on dealing with the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army [which has bases inside Sudan]; the repatriation of Ugandans abducted by the LRA; and the exchange of diplomatic representation, he added. 

Ismail also rejected a Canadian offer to lead by itself mediation between Uganda and Sudan, saying that Khartoum preferred to have Canada involved within the initiative of the US-based Carter Centre, which was sponsoring negotiations between the two countries and had facilitated the Kampala reconciliation agreement in September, the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. 

Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, has criticised "the collapse of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefires" in Sudan which had been in effect since July 1998. Vraalsen, who chaired a meeting of the Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) in Geneva late last week, expressed displeasure during the meeting at the cessation of the ceasefires, and noted the loss of life and damage to property from war-related ground and air offensives. He said they had resulted in large-scale displacements of civilian populations, "bringing further misery to a people who can barely meet their basic needs", according to a final statement from the meeting.  Vraalsen also urged the parties to consider establishing an independent Grievance Committee, noting that such a body could reinforce adherence to ceasefires and build confidence. 

During the Geneva meeting, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), parties to the conflict in the Sudan, agreed to establish a cross-line road corridor from Kenya to southern Sudan, in order to ensure secure delivery of relief aid to affected Sudanese populations, a UN press release stated on Monday. The agreement to link Lokichoggio in northern Kenya to Kapoeta in southeastern Sudan was reached during this the fourth meeting of the TCHA, held in Geneva from 2-3 November. The participants unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to the principle of unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in need, and acknowledged the importance of the national campaign to vaccinate children against polio, following an appeal by Vraalsen, the final communique stated. 

The Catholic Information Office for Sudan on Friday reported that Torit district, near the Kenyan border, was the latest target of government air bombardments which had seen the air force drop 60 bombs in 10 days. These attacks were directed at civilian structures, including schools, hospitals, churches and cultural facilities, in Nimule, Ikotos, Ngaluma and now Torit, a press release by the Church office stated. The government had generated population displacement, created "a climate of fear" and blocked the progress of projects to stabilise the population, restore their confidence and involve them in longer-term development. The Office called for a ban on military planes flying over South Sudan, and demanded the presence of UN observers to monitor the Sudanese conflict. 

The government bombing of civilian targets in Eastern Equatoria province in southern Sudan was having "devastating effects on traumatised local people", the Roman Catholic Church stated on Wednesday. Those worst affected were children, who now fled at the sight or sound of any aircraft, according to a statement issued by the Nairobi-based Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO). Fr Maurice Loguti, stationed in the Catholic Diocese of Torit - the site of regular bombings - said the way the air raids were now conducted would leave even the most daring soldier terrified, and said that on 25 October an Antonov bomber dropped 12 bombs, two-by two over two hours, on Ikotos, near the Ugandan border. The government has fighting a civil war against the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan since 1983, and has frequently been accused of deliberately bombing civilian targets. 

The opposition Umma Party on Wednesday said it would be boycotting the Sudanese presidential and parliamentary elections in December, becoming the second major opposition party to do so, the Associated Press agency (AP)  reported. The party of former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi – whose government was overthrown by Omar al-Bashir, the current president, in 1989 - would not consider the elections legitimate, AP quoted its spokeswoman Sara Nugudullah as saying. Umma was asking that the elections be postponed until a comprehensive political solution to the Sudanese civil war was reached, and that the money earmarked for the elections be used to treat medical patients and develop services, she added. Nugudullah's statement came a day after al-Mahdi said he would return to Sudan on 24 November after four years in exile, reportedly to use the limited political freedom available to work for peace and democracy, AP added. 

The former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi said last month that his part, the Popular National Congress (PNC), would not take part in elections until al-Bashir stood down. Turabi formed the PNC earlier this year after his former close partner al-Bashir sidelined him for allegedly trying to oust him. 

President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday signed a decree cancelling customs duties for countries of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), according to Sudanese state television. Duties would be cancelled as of Wednesday according to the decree, announced on the eve of Bashir's departure for a COMESA summit in Zambia, Agence France Presse (AFP) stated, citing the television report. Sudan and nine other countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe are due to sign an agreement creating a free-trade zone during this week's COMESA summit. It was not immediately clear whether Sudan's customs waiver would apply only to members of this or to all COMESA members, the AFP report added. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now under way, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second timethe government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terakeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLM/A and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. [see separate IRIN report of 24 October on the Polio Immunisation Campaign]

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan newspaper, 'The New Vision' reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to ensure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted the Sudanese minister of state for external affairs, Ali Abd al-Rahman Numayri, as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, from 6 to 7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on 20 October, contacts between the two governments were continuing with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) - was on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said. 

Government forces on Thursday claimed to be in control of the city of Kassala, 400 km east of the capital Khartoum, after driving out rebels who had claimed its capture on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reported. "The government and army are in control," it quoted a city resident as saying. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was in place, in addition to a state of emergency, but residents were on Thursday preparing to go to work again, the report said.  The rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - a political and military grouping of Muslim opposition groups from the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in the south - had said its forces captured Kassala before dawn on Wednesday morning after a day and night of heavy fighting. Sudanese Minister for Information and Culture Ghazi Salah al-Din also said on Wednesday that "the entire forces" of the insurgents belonged to the SPLA, and not the NDA. 

Rebels have never before controlled Kassala, which lies on the main road between Khartoum and Port Sudan, along which all Sudan's imports and exports pass, the BBC reported. Eritrea has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the NDA (based in Eritrea) and the Sudanese government, with which it resumed ties earlier this year after a break of six years amid accusations that each supported the other's rebel movements. Sudan had agreed in principle to certain Eritrean proposals, but the NDA has reportedly insisted of Eritrea that it secures "something in writing" from the Khartoum government on a new constitution, democracy, human rights and a transition government before it will engage in talks. 

The Sudanese government will urge the UN Security Council to lift diplomatic and economic sanctions against it after more than four years, despite the threat of the US blocking any such move with its veto in the Council, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Khartoum on Wednesday. He said the US had sent Sudan a message threatening to use its veto on 15 November if Khartoum requested a lifting of the sanctions, imposed in 1996 in the wake of Sudan's refusal to hand over suspects in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, and its alleged assistance and support for terrorist elements. "We will present our request on the scheduled date unless we feel that the outcome will not be in Sudan's interest, and in this case we will postpone but not altogether abandon the request," Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ismail as saying. The foreign minister said dialogue with the US would not stop, and relations would "never be as bad as they were before," it added. 

The sanctions restricted the movement of Sudanese officials abroad, cut the number of diplomatic missions in and to Sudan, and called on international and regional organisations not to hold conferences in Sudan, according to Resolution 1054 of the Security Council on 26 April 1996. Even so, Sudan was planning to host a summit conference of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (which has Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda as members) next week, AFP reported. 

Foreign Minister Ismail on Wednesday told reporters that Uganda was procrastinating over the implementation of an agreement reached in September to normalise relations between the two countries, which have been strained by the support of each for rebel movements in the other. A technical committee meeting to discuss implementation was twice postponed in October, and Ismail on Wednesday rejected Uganda's explanation that this was due to an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola in the north of the country.  Ismail also said Uganda had rejected a Sudanese diplomat nominated to operate from the Libyan embassy in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and had not yet named an envoy of its own to operate from the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum, as agreed in the reconciliation pact. Despite "the Ugandan procrastination", Sudan was committed to honouring its responsibilities on dealing with the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army [which has bases inside Sudan]; the repatriation of Ugandans abducted by the LRA; and the exchange of diplomatic representation, he added. 

Ismail also rejected a Canadian offer to lead by itself mediation between Uganda and Sudan, saying that Khartoum preferred to have Canada involved within the initiative of the US-based Carter Centre, which was sponsoring negotiations between the two countries and had facilitated the Kampala reconciliation agreement in September, the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. 

Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, has criticised "the collapse of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefires" in Sudan which had been in effect since July 1998. Vraalsen, who chaired a meeting of the Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) in Geneva late last week, expressed displeasure during the meeting at the cessation of the ceasefires, and noted the loss of life and damage to property from war-related ground and air offensives. He said they had resulted in large-scale displacements of civilian populations, "bringing further misery to a people who can barely meet their basic needs", according to a final statement from the meeting.  Vraalsen also urged the parties to consider establishing an independent Grievance Committee, noting that such a body could reinforce adherence to ceasefires and build confidence. 

During the Geneva meeting, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), parties to the conflict in the Sudan, agreed to establish a cross-line road corridor from Kenya to southern Sudan, in order to ensure secure delivery of relief aid to affected Sudanese populations, a UN press release stated on Monday. The agreement to link Lokichoggio in northern Kenya to Kapoeta in southeastern Sudan was reached during this the fourth meeting of the TCHA, held in Geneva from 2-3 November. The participants unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to the principle of unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in need, and acknowledged the importance of the national campaign to vaccinate children against polio, following an appeal by Vraalsen, the final communique stated. 

The Catholic Information Office for Sudan on Friday reported that Torit district, near the Kenyan border, was the latest target of government air bombardments which had seen the air force drop 60 bombs in 10 days. These attacks were directed at civilian structures, including schools, hospitals, churches and cultural facilities, in Nimule, Ikotos, Ngaluma and now Torit, a press release by the Church office stated. The government had generated population displacement, created "a climate of fear" and blocked the progress of projects to stabilise the population, restore their confidence and involve them in longer-term development. The Office called for a ban on military planes flying over South Sudan, and demanded the presence of UN observers to monitor the Sudanese conflict. 

The government bombing of civilian targets in Eastern Equatoria province in southern Sudan was having "devastating effects on traumatised local people", the Roman Catholic Church stated on Wednesday. Those worst affected were children, who now fled at the sight or sound of any aircraft, according to a statement issued by the Nairobi-based Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO). Fr Maurice Loguti, stationed in the Catholic Diocese of Torit - the site of regular bombings - said the way the air raids were now conducted would leave even the most daring soldier terrified, and said that on 25 October an Antonov bomber dropped 12 bombs, two-by two over two hours, on Ikotos, near the Ugandan border. The government has fighting a civil war against the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan since 1983, and has frequently been accused of deliberately bombing civilian targets. 

The opposition Umma Party on Wednesday said it would be boycotting the Sudanese presidential and parliamentary elections in December, becoming the second major opposition party to do so, the Associated Press agency (AP)  reported. The party of former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi – whose government was overthrown by Omar al-Bashir, the current president, in 1989 - would not consider the elections legitimate, AP quoted its spokeswoman Sara Nugudullah as saying. Umma was asking that the elections be postponed until a comprehensive political solution to the Sudanese civil war was reached, and that the money earmarked for the elections be used to treat medical patients and develop services, she added. Nugudullah's statement came a day after al-Mahdi said he would return to Sudan on 24 November after four years in exile, reportedly to use the limited political freedom available to work for peace and democracy, AP added. 

The former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi said last month that his part, the Popular National Congress (PNC), would not take part in elections until al-Bashir stood down. Turabi formed the PNC earlier this year after his former close partner al-Bashir sidelined him for allegedly trying to oust him. 

President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday signed a decree cancelling customs duties for countries of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), according to Sudanese state television. Duties would be cancelled as of Wednesday according to the decree, announced on the eve of Bashir's departure for a COMESA summit in Zambia, Agence France Presse (AFP) stated, citing the television report. Sudan and nine other countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe are due to sign an agreement creating a free-trade zone during this week's COMESA summit. It was not immediately clear whether Sudan's customs waiver would apply only to members of this or to all COMESA members, the AFP report added. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now under way, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second timethe government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terakeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLM/A and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. [see separate IRIN report of 24 October on the Polio Immunisation Campaign]

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan newspaper, 'The New Vision' reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to ensure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted the Sudanese minister of state for external affairs, Ali Abd al-Rahman Numayri, as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, from 6 to 7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on 20 October, contacts between the two governments were continuing with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) - was on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said. 

Sudan has announced the lifting of the state of emergency imposed in July this year following the split between President Omar al-Bashir and the former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi. The Sudanese mission at the UN in New York also called for international election observers to monitor the country's forthcoming presidential elections this December, according to a UN press release. Humanitarian organisations had criticised the state of emergency, saying it would allow the security forces to "act with total impunity", thus endangering people's human rights. 

The moves were welcomed by Leonardo Franco, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the country, during a debate at the UN in New York. In an interim report, Franco noted that although there had been progress in addressing the root cause of the Sudan conflict, all sides were guilty of "massive and systematic violations" of human rights and international humanitarian law, mostly against innocent civilians.  "The dramatic escalation in military hostilities over the past few months is of concern," Franco said in his report. He expressed regret that an improved political environment had not led to a cessation of human rights violations such as torture, arbitrary detention and attempts against freedoms. He noted there was a new dynamism in relations between the government and political opposition.

In the report, Franco expressed concern over abductions of women and children in Sudan, abuses by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Eastern Equatoria, and the situation of refugees from Eritrea. "He underlined the responsibility of the SPLM/A for military actions taken in violation of a ceasefire," a UN résumé of the report said.  "He strongly recommended the promotion of new follow-up mechanisms within the framework of the peacemaking process, endorsing earlier recommendations that urged renewal of a ceasefire and the mediation structure aimed at a negotiated solution to the conflict." 

US President Bill Clinton has expressed concern over government bombing raids in southern Sudan. In a statement released by the White House, he recalled that last week "government aircraft dropped munitions on a village while an international relief agency was distributing food". "Such egregious abuses have become commonplace in Sudan's ongoing civil war," the statement said. "If the government of Sudan seeks to demonstrate to the international community that it is prepared to act according to international norms...it must allow full and immediate access for humanitarian organisations seeking to provide relief to Sudan'swar-ravaged civilians," the statement said. 

UNHCR is sending a team of 15 protection officers to Khartoum to prepare the screening of Ethiopian refugees who fled their country before 1991 and who now fall under the "cessation clause" declared in March in all countries still hosting Ethiopian refugees. They will provide training to 15 counterparts from the Sudanese government, and together they will carry out the screening process, UNHCR said. The operation follows a decision last September to withdraw blanket refugee status from Ethiopians who fled during the Mengistu regime, considering that conditions were now safe for them to repatriate. Sudan still hosts the largest group of Ethiopians who left their country prior to 1991, with 12,000 in camps and almost twice as many in urban areas. UNHCR said more than 2,000 camp residents had registered for voluntary repatriation, and the figure was expected to rise following the launch of a mass information campaign by Ethiopian officials and UNHCR this week. 

The executive director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, visiting Sudan to launch the countrywide polio immunisation campaign, has received "the fullest assurance yet" from the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M)  that no children under the age of 18 would be recruited, or allowed to stay in the ranks if already recruited, a press release from the agency stated on Tuesday. At the UNICEF-supported Deng Nhial School for demobilised child soldiers in the central southern Sudanese town of Rumbek, Bellamy received the renewed commitment from Commander Salva Kiir Mayardit, deputy chairman of the SPLA/M. "Commander Salva Kiir has explained that, although the Movement banned the use of child soldiers two years ago, many orphans and displaced youngsters still found a home in the army, where at least they could find food. But this promise is recognition that the military is not in any way a suitable environment for a child. We hope that now all sides will follow suit," said Bellamy.

The SPLA at the weekend discharged 109 child soldiers, bringing the number of students at the Deng Nhial school to more than 400, UNICEF stated. While many children were involved in fighting, younger ones are often used for cooking or washing, but "even life as a servant in a guerilla camp exposes them to attack, and causes them to miss out on education," it added. The agency described as "one of the enduring tragedies" of Sudan's civil war the fact that there are some 9,000 child soldiers fighting on all sides in the conflict. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now underway, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, SPLA/M spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second time the government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terekeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLA/M and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. 

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan 'New Vision' newspaper reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to assure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Abdel Rahman Nimeiri as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 6-7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on Friday, contacts between the two governments were continuing, with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) - were on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is demobilising child soldiers.  The SPLA has instructed all its commanders in the field to demobilise all children under 18 years of age, a BBC report said on Monday. According to the report, the SPLA further committed itself to stop recruiting child soldiers. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, currently visiting southern Sudan, told the BBC she had "received commitment from the authorities in the south" that all child soldiers will be demobilised. The report estimated that there are roughly 9,000 child soldiers in the SPLA. 

Meanwhile, a 12 day truce is holding in south Sudan to allow for a UN Polio Eradication Initiative, the BBC said. The initiative aims to stamp out polio by 2005. 

Little attention has been paid to the development needs of the people of southern Sudan, where chronic conflict has "systematically destroyed the social fabric of institutions sustaining food security, education and health care". In a joint statement, Christian Aid and Oxfam said despite humanitarian efforts in the war-affected south, underdevelopment had become institutionalised. "Southern Sudan now represents one of the most glaring examples of development failure in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa", the statement said. It criticised British government policy for "reducing development assistance while war continued", saying it had done little to further the pursuit of peace. 

Sudanese government planes bombed two civilian targets in Ikotos and Parajok in eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, on 15 October. The US Committee for Refugees said in a press release on Monday that the bombings "appear to indicate that Sudanese officials are prepared to intensify their bombing campaign against civilians and international humanitarian aid workers in southern Sudan now that their bid for a Security Council seat has been defeated". It said there had been four bombings of civilian or humanitarian sites this week, following "a three-week bombing lull that preceded the 10 October vote by the UN General Assembly to select new members to the Security Council". Sudan was defeated in the final vote, with the US leading a campaign against its bid on the basis of its human rights record and alleged involvement in terrorism.

The US Committee for Refugees called on the US government, the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to officially condemn each aerial bombing in southern Sudan. "Occasional criticisms of the bombings voiced by foreign policy makers are insufficent," it said. 

The Sudanese government and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have agreed to observe a cessation of hostilities to allow UNICEF to attempt to vaccinate some 4.5 million Sudanese children. The UNICEF representative in Khartoum, Thomas Ekvall, told reporters that the two parties had pledged to observe a "period of tranquillity" during the immunisation programme, AP reported on Monday. Ekvall said UNICEF had demanded full access to all areas during the campaign to vaccinate children under five from 21 to 23 October and from 17 to 18 November. 

President Umar al-Bashir dismissed his second vice-president, George Kongor Arop, on Sunday. A statement released by the government gave no reason for the surprise decision, news agencies reported. George Kongor, who is southern Sudanese, has been a close assistant to Bashir since he was appointed to the post in 1992. The day before his dismissal, Kongor had been on an inspection tour of Khartoum teaching hospital, after which he was summoned by Bashir, who informed him of the decision, press reports said.  The Sudanese constitution provides that the country's second vice-president should be a southerner. 

A lawyer defending two citizens in Nyala, western Sudan, was arrested while on duty and transferred to Khartoum. The London-based human rights organisation, Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (STVG), said in a press release made available to IRIN that since his arrest on 5 October, the lawyer had been held incommunicado. SVTG urged the Sudanese authorities to ensure the "physical and psychological integrity of Ahmad Kamal al-Din and to immediately release him and all other citizens "who are held in detention without valid charges". The press release also said a Sudanese security officer, Isa Abbakar Adam, was arrested in Khartoum on 1 October. It said Adam, a supporter of opposition ideologue Hasan al-Turabi, "is well known for his involvement in many human rights abuses, including physical torture". It said he was in charge of the department of special operations of the security forces, and had responsibilities in the National Islamic Front (NIF) to "monitor all retired military officers". STVG called on the Sudanese government to ensure Adam had a "fair and impartial trial" and exercise of his right to legal counsel. 

Sudan has sent flights carrying humanitarian aid and political delegates to the sanction-hit Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in defiance of a 10-year UN air embargo. The "solidarity flights" were undertaken by two Sudanese aircraft and a Lebanese aircraft on 13 October, AFP reported. Sudanese Social Affairs Minister Qutbi al-Mahdi led a delegation on one of the Sudanese aircraft, while the other two carried six tonnes of medical aid, AFP said. Baghdad's Saddam International Airport reopened on 17 August, and Sudan joined "a long list of Arab countries to test the embargo", according to AFP. 

Sudan lost its bid for the seat of the African group on the UN Security Council. Sudan's candidacy was strongly opposed by the US which cited Khartoum's alleged involvement in terrorism and a poor human rights record.  Mauritius challenged Sudan and - backed by the US and its allies - won the seat. Sudan has been under UN diplomatic sanctions since 1996 for failing to hand over three men wanted for a 1995 assassination attempt of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in neighbouring Ethiopia and has been accused of several other terrorist activities. 

The southern Sudanese town of Ikotos, eastern Equatoria, was bombed late on Tuesday morning. Humanitarian sources told IRIN the government bombing took place while a food distribution by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was underway and six dwellings were destroyed. CRS is an NGO operating under the UN-sponsored Operation Lifeline Sudan relief operation. The source said one of the bombs reportedly fell in the grounds of a school, but no civilian casualties had been reported. A source at CRS told IRIN that six bombs were dropped at about 10:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT) and some local houses were damaged. No casualties were reported, the source added. 

A senior Sudanese official said the rioters who shot and injured police in a university demonstration would be dealt with harshly. National Congress party secretary-general Ibrahim Ahmad Umar said the security organs would "not be lenient towards any organisation supporting these acts," Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al'Amn' reported on Wednesday. Umar told the press that riots were destructive and caused injuries to citizens, but would not overthrow a government. Investigations have begun into the demonstration at Sudan University. 

Government statements said it was the first time demonstrators had opened fire on authorities. Four policemen were injured by university students chanting anti-government slogans in Khartoum. The demonstrators, from the University of Science and Technology, started their protest after a seminar organised by the opposition group Popular National Congress, headed by former speaker of parliament, Hasan al-Turabi, Associated Press (AP) said on Monday. 

Sudan and Eritrea agreed on Saturday to take steps to end enmity between the two governments and resolve differences through peaceful means. The two sides agreed to commit themselves to "good neighbourly policies", the official Sudanese media said. After talks between the two presidents, the two sides agreed "to cooperate positively to end all forms of enmity" said a communiqué issued at the end of a three-day visit by Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki. Afewerki was quoted as saying "we do not want to condemn of level accusations. Our aim is to go forward now", Reuters said on Saturday.  The Eritrean president said there were no more questions of security between the two countries. Relations deteriorated after Sudanese officials accused Eritrea of supporting rebel attacks into eastern Sudan and after Eritrea accused Sudan of facilitating Ethiopian troops in the two year border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

Four policemen were injured by university students chanting anti-government slogans in Khartoum. The students opened fire on riot police in downtown Khartoum, a statement by the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. Students were "exploiting freedom of expression" said the statement, released on Sunday.  News agencies said the injured policemen underwent surgery and were in intensive care. The demonstrators, from the University of Science and Technology, started their protest after a seminar organized by the opposition group Popular National Congress, headed by former speaker of parliament, Hasan al-Turabi, AP said. According to the statement, it was the first time demonstrators had opened fire on authorities, but gave no further details on the weapons used or arrests. 

Uganda is opposed to Sudan's nomination to the UN Security Council, and will vote instead for Mauritius at the election of representatives in New York next week. Ugandan Minister for Regional Cooperation Amama Mbabazi complained that Sudan was still under sanctions for terrorism, the Ugandan pro-government daily 'New Vision' said on Friday. "Sudan is currently under sanctions by the UN for terrorism ... We have strongly objected to Sudan's bid," Mbabazi said. He complained that neighbouring Sudan had been "sponsoring terrorism against Uganda" by aiding rebels and that it had been "busy bombing UN facilities" providing relief. The US has openly campaigned against Sudan's nomination to the UN Security Council, and has encouraged support for Mauritius. Uganda cut ties with Sudan in April 1995, accusing Sudan of supporting rebels and bombing Ugandan territory.

Sudanese peace talks ended in Kenya on 1 October with an agreement by both parties to hold another meeting this month. The talks, held under the auspices of the regional IGAD, failed to overcome major differences on issues of state and religion, andself-determination for the south. 

Following the talks, the Sudanese government categorically rejected proposals by talks' mediators for state secularism. In a statement carried last Tuesday by the Sudanese state media, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, government head of delegation, said that state secularism had been "categorially rejected" in favour of a proposal that Islamic Shari'ah be the source of legislation in Sudan "unless some states want to exempt themselves" from its application. 

Sudanese state media said on 29 September that delegates from Sudan, Uganda, Egypt and Libya would hold a meeting in Khartoum in October to discuss arrangements for improving Sudanese-Ugandan relations. External Relations Minister Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said fundamental principles, "such as non-interference in domestic affairs and gradual restoration of diplomatic and economic relations", had been agreed on during a recent meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries held in Kampala. It was agreed during the meeting that Uganda would post diplomats in Khartoum under the auspices of Kenya, and Sudan would post diplomats in Kampala under the sponsorship of Libya, said a report by Sudanese state media, monitored by the BBC. 

Efforts by the SPLA to obstruct a rail convoy heading for Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, have been thwarted by government forces. A statement issued by the general command of the Sudanese armed forces on 29 September said efforts by the SPLA to prevent the convoy from reaching Aweil, southern Bahr al-Ghazal, had been repulsed by the armed forces and People's Defence Forces (PDF). According to the statement, the SPLA attacked the convoy on 25 September, but incurred heavy human and material losses. The Alul river bridge, which had been destroyed by the SPLA, had  been rehabilitated by the army, said the statement, carried by state media.

Meanwhile, the SPLA have attacked the Bara garrison in central Sudan and inflicted heavy casualties. The SPLA claimed victories in Bara in a report broadcast by Sudanese opposition radio, Voice of the National Democratic Alliance, on 2 October. SPLA forces had also captured two garrisons in the Nubah Mountains "in the previous weeks in reaction to government attacks", said the report. No independent confirmation has been forthcoming in support of the claims, nor any government reaction. 

Talks between Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir and Eritrea's Isayas Afewerki on Wednesday night focused on security issues that have dogged bilateral relations between the two countries. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il told reporters that the talks would "mainly centre on development of the bilateral relations and removal of the obstacles hindering those relations," according to AFP. A key issue is the security along the common border, after Sudanese officials recently accused Eritrea of harbouring and aiding fighters of the armed Sudanese opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Sudan People's Liberation Army is the main armed element of the NDA, which has offices in Asmara. The continued presence of the SPLA in western Eritrea is "an open secret", diplomatic sources told IRIN. Eritrea, on its part, accuses Khartoum of hosting an Eritrean opposition group and facilitating Ethiopian troops, said the source. 

According to the Sudan foreign minister, issues such as Sudan's civil war and the conflict in Somalia may be broached, AFP said. Last week Eritrea - as part of a regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace initiative - arranged talks in Asmara between al-Bashir and a leading exiled opponent, NDA chairman Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani. Afewerki's high-level delegation includes new Foreign Minister Ali Sayyid Abdullah, Mining Minister Tasfai Gebre Salame and a number of Eritrean businessmen, AFP said. The Eritrean president was met by al-Bashir on arrival and also with Sudanese Defence Minister Bakri Hasan Salih, news agencies reported. 

The Sudanese government categorically rejected proposals by peace talk mediators for state secularism. In a statement carried on Tuesday by the Sudanese state media, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, government head of delegation, said state secularism had been "categorically rejected" in favour of a proposal that Islamic Shari'ah was the source of legislation for the federal government and states. Al-Tahir qualified that Shari'ah should be the source of legislation "unless some states want to exempt themselves from the application of the Islamic Shari'ah". The statement came at the end of unsuccessful peace talks brokered by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Kenya, which lasted for eleven days. 

Al-Tahir, presidential adviser, said that the central government was responsible for mineral wealth and underground resources and the supervision of fair distribution of wealth - as were all other governments in the world.  Over the issue of the status of Abyei, South Kordofan and southern Blue Nile - which fall on the north-south border - he said the government delegation had called on IGAD to stick to its "jurisdiction". The issue of the three areas was "not included in the IGAD's declaration of principles" and could not be discussed in the IGAD forum, said the statement. According to the leader of the government delegation, the peace talks had been adjourned until the last week of October. 

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM/A) blamed the collapse of recent peace talks on intransigence over the issue of state and religion on the part of the government. In a statement made available to IRIN on Tuesday, the SPLM said mediators had proposed a two tier-system of law "whereby at the national level all the institutions and state organs should be neutral on religion save for personal law affecting marriage, divorce, inheritance etc which may be governed by religious or customary laws". The SPLM/A said it had agreed, on the condition the constitution was secular and all institutions and state organs should be neutral on religion, but that the government delegation had rejected the proposal. According to the SPLM/A statement: "The government as in previous peace talks, insisted that Sharia, Customary Law and National consensus must be included in the constitution as sources of legislation". 

It said there were "very few points of convergence" on the issue of self-administration and wealth sharing, as the two were related to systems of governance and the relationship between state and religion. Spokesman for the SPLM/A, Samson Kwaje, said in the statement that a breakthrough could have been achieved if it were not for "intransigence and arrogance" on the part of the government. He said the government delegation had "rejected all proposals and persuasions from the mediators" which frustrated the talks "in favour of (a) continued military option in the Sudanese conflict". 

Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki is due in Sudan on Wednesday, Sudanese Minister of External Relations, Mustafa Uthman Isma'il announced. He told Sudan state television on Tuesday that Afewerki would hold talks with President Omar al-Basher on "the acceleration of the normalisation process and restoring peace to the Horn of Africa". Basher invited the Eritrean president to Khartoum after Afewerki successfully arranged a first-time meeting between the Sudanese president and exiled leader of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The NDA has offices in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. 

Isma'il also said that "serious dialogue" had been initiated between Sudan and the US to "remove obstacles hampering the process of bilateral relations". 

A senior Sudanese official left on Tuesday for Libya to inspect conditions of Sudanese nationals in Libya. Cabinet Affairs Minister General Abdel Rahman Siral Khatim would inspect conditions of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese nationals, state Omdurman radio said. The announcement avoided mention that the visit was connected with reports of violent incidents in the Libyan town of Zawiya in which members of the African community, including Sudanese, were killed or injured, AFP said on Tuesday. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Isma'il said earlier that a Sudanese national was killed and others of an unspecified number were wounded in the incidents, and that a presidential envoy would fly to Tripoli to see what had happened, AFP said. In the Jordanian capital Amman last week, Libya's African Unity Minister Ali Abdel Salaam Triki told AFP that the situation was calm: "some fights broke out among members of the Nigerian and Libyan communities" when Nigerian men tired "to tease girls", Triki said. He said police had intervened immediately and arrested those involved in the fighting.

Peace talks in Kenya between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement(SPLM) ended with minimal progress having been made and only a commitment to continue. However, a Sudanese government spokesman, Amin Hasan Umar, said in an interview with the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation that the gap between the government and the SPLM was "narrowing". In the interview, monitored by the BBC, he called on the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which sponsored the talks, to intensify efforts to end the Sudanese conflict. He was quoted on Monday as saying that the government delegation had tried to come up "with a formula where the diverse cultures and... ethnic groups and... religious communities in the Sudan coexist" in order to "strike a balance between the rights of each group and religion". According to the statement released by IGAD at the end of the talks, issues of state and religion had been the main obstacle to progress in the talks.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have attacked the Bara garrison in central Sudan and inflicted heavy casualties. The SPLA claimed victories in Bara in a report broadcast by Sudanese opposition radio, Voice of the National Democratic Alliance, on 2 October. SPLA forces had also captured two garrisons in the Nubah Mountains "in the previous weeks in reaction to government attacks", said the report. No independent confirmation has been forthcoming in support of the claims, nor any no reaction by the government. 

Sudanese peace talks ended in Kenya on Sunday with an agreement by both parties to hold another meeting this month. The talks, held under the auspices of the regional IGAD, failed to overcome major differences between the delegations on issues of state and religion, and self-determination for the south. 

A statement released by IGAD said there had been extensive consultation and discussion on the relationship between state and religion, but "divergences on the issue could not be reconciled". The statement said "in-depth deliberations" on self-administration had led to an agreement to "pursue [the matter] further". There had also been "divergent views" on the problems of Southern Kordofan, Southern Blue Nile and Abyei. Only issues of "wealth sharing" had found common ground "on some principles which apply to the apportionment of wealth at the national, state and concurrent levels".  According to the statement, the talks were conducted in a positive and constructive atmosphere in which "both parties reiterated their commitment to the IGAD peace process in Sudan".

Sudanese state media said on 29 September that delegates from Sudan, Uganda, Egypt and Libya would hold a meeting in Khartoum in October to discuss arrangements for improving Sudanese-Ugandan relations. External Relations Minister Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said fundamental principles, "such as non-interference in domestic affairs and gradual restoration of diplomatic and economic relations", had been agreed on during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries held in Kampala last week. It was agreed during the meeting that Uganda would post diplomats in Khartoum under the auspices of Kenya, and Sudan would post diplomats in Kampala under the sponsorship of Libya, said a report by Sudanese state media, monitored by the BBC. 

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has rejected the Sudanese president's nomination of himself for a further presidential term.  Official spokesman Yasir Arman said in Asmara, Eritrea, that the president's self-nomination, announced to the ruling party's general congress, showed a "lack of seriousness" to reach a comprehensive political agreement. The statement was published in the London-based newspaper, 'Al-Sharq al-Awsat', on 29 September, following the latest meeting in Asmara between National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani and President Umar al-Bashir. The SPLM/A spokesman said: "The regime must freeze these and other elections and move earnestly towards a peaceful solution." Arman was dismissive of the calls by Ummah Party leader Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi to hold a Sudanese summit meeting, saying the SPLM/A was "committed to the action taken by the NDA within the framework of the peaceful settlement". 

Efforts by the SPLA to obstruct a rail convoy heading for Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, have been thwarted by government forces. A statement issued by the general command of the Sudanese armed forces on 29 September said efforts by the SPLA to prevent the convoy from reaching Aweil, southern Bahr al-Ghazal, had been repulsed by the armed forces and People's Defence Forces (PDF). According to the statement, the SPLA attacked the convoy on 25 September, but incurred heavy human and material losses. The Alul river bridge, which had been destroyed by the SPLA, had been rehabilitated by the army, said the statement, carried by state media. 

Government forces were "massing in Equatoria [southern Sudan] around Torit, Mgoi and Kaila", said the statement. The SPLA had "rejected all peace initiatives and violated all agreements, as well as the government's goodwill in announcing a ceasefire".

Peace talks under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA), which opened last week at a hotel on Lake Bogoria in western Kenya, are continuing. The meeting was opened by Ambassador Daniel Mboya, the head of the IGAD permanent secretariat. The government delegation is led by Ibrahim al-Tahir, the presidential adviser on peace affairs, while Nhial Deng is representing the SPLM. 

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), meanwhile, claimed it had
captured the garrison town of Tahajulbolis on the main Kaduqli-Dilling road in south-central Sudan. In a statement issued by Sudanese opposition radio Voice of Sudan on 22 September, the SPLA said it had inflicted "heavy loss of life and equipment" on government forces and a number of government soldiers had been killed and wounded. It said Tahajulbolis was the second garrison to be captured by the SPLA around the regional capital, Kaduqli, within the space of three weeks. No independent source has confirmed the capture. 

President Umar al-Bashir arrived in Asmara last Tuesday accompanied by ministers and senior officials. During his visit he met Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki, with whom discussed ways of strengthening bilateral relations. Bashir also met Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, the leader of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, according to AFP. During the meeting they agreed to resolve issues by way of dialogue as opposed to military means. It was the first meeting between the two since 1989 when Bashir seized power in a military coup. Sudanese state media quoted government spokesman Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani as saying that President Isayas Afewerki would make an official visit to Sudan. 

Pressure continues on the Sudanese government to completely overturn and annul a 4 September ban on women in the workplace. Governor Majzoub Khalifa of Khartoum, who issued the decree, said it was in accordance with Islamic Sharia law and aimed to honour women.  However, the ban which excludes women from working in hotels, fuel stations, restaurants and other public places, has been met with a wave of protests in Sudan and abroad. Many organisations have denounced it as an infringement of human rights and have demanded its annulment. 

The Mutawinat Group, which coordinates Sudanese women's efforts to fight the decree, said about 100 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and academic institutions held a meeting to discuss its implementation. The group said the ruling was a violation of the law. An action plan was drawn up in an effort increase the number of NGOs involved, as well as raising greater awareness of the issue both locally and abroad. 

Sudan's Constitutional Court suspended the controversial decree on 11 September after the protests, but organisations continue to campaign against it. According to one international organisation, the decree is "a major set-back for women's human rights achievements in Sudan... we don't want to see another Afghanistan." 

The Sudanese electoral commission announced on Wednesday it would hold presidential and legislative elections in December, AFP reported. According to commission president Abdel Monem al-Zain al-Nahha, voting would take place from December 11-20 in the country's 26 regions, the report said, with results published on 24 December.  The legislative vote had originally been set for March, but President Omar al-Beshir had dissolved parliament in December 1999 and decreed a state of emergency for three months, the report said, adding, that decree was renewed in April until the end of the year.

Pressure continues on the Sudanese government to completely overturn and annul a 4 September ban on women in the workplace. Governor Majzoub Khalifa of Khartoum, who issued the decree, said it was in accordance with Islamic Sharia law and aimed to honour women.  However, the ban which excludes women from working in hotels, fuel stations, restaurants and other public places, has been met with a wave of protests in Sudan and abroad. Many organisations have denounced it as an infringement of human rights and have demanded its annulment. 

The Mutawinat Group, which coordinates Sudanese women's efforts to fight the decree, said about 100 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and academic institutions held a meeting to discuss its implementation. The group said the ruling was a violation of the law. An action plan was drawn up in an effort increase the number of NGOs involved, as well as raising greater awareness of the issue both locally and abroad. 

Sudan's Constitutional Court suspended the controversial decree on 11 September after the protests, but organisations continue to campaign against it. According to one international organisation, the decree is "a major set-back for women's human rights achievements in Sudan... we don't want to see another Afghanistan." 

The Sudanese electoral commission announced on Wednesday it would hold presidential and legislative elections in December, AFP reported. According to commission president Abdel Monem al-Zain al-Nahha, voting would take place from December 11-20 in the country's 26 regions, the report said, with results published on 24 December.  The legislative vote had originally been set for March, but President Omar al-Beshir had dissolved parliament in December 1999 and decreed a state of emergency for three months, the report said, adding, that decree was renewed in April until the end of the year.

The London-based Sudanese human rights organisation, Sudan Victims Torture Group, called on Tuesday for the immediate release of an opposition delegate arrested at Khartoum airport on 20 September. A press statement said that Adam Muhammad Ahmed, member of the political bureau of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was arrested at the airport on his return from a general opposition conference held mid-September in the Eritrean port town of Masawa. The conference was convened by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which is an umbrella group for northern opposition groups and the southern armed Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). 

Since being detained, the whereabouts of Ahmed was unknown and no charges had been put, said SVTG. The organisation called for the Sudanese authorities to ensure the "physical and psychological integrity" of the delegate as "torture and mistreatment are well known and well reported in secret detention centres in Sudan," said the statement. The Sudanese authorities have so far made no comment about the issue. 

Khartoum has asked Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi to intervene following reports of clashes between Libyans and African expatriates, including many Sudanese nationals, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir sent a message to Gadaffi, asking for his intervention, after the Sudanese independent newspaper 'Akhbar-al-Yom' reported 50 people were killed in recent clashes between the nationals of Sudan and Chad. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry, however, issued a statement saying that the ministry had no information about any deaths among the Sudanese community, but had been told of injuries sustained by Sudanese nationals, the report said. The Sudanese embassy in Tripoli had been exerting "tremendous efforts"  over the past few days to determine the whereabouts and condition of Sudanese nationals resident in Libya, it added. 

President Omar al-Beshir of Sudan met with leaders of the Sudanese opposition coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), on Tuesday in Eritrea. In a report by AFP on Tuesday, the meeting between al-Beshir and opposition leader Mohamed Osmane al-Mirghani in Asmara was the first time the two men had met since 1989 when al-Beshir seized power in a military coup supported by Islamic "fundamentalists". It went on to say that the NDA, an umbrella organisation of northern opposition groups and the armed Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), views the talks as "exploratory".

Meanwhile, in a separate report on Tuesday by the Suna news agency in Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, expressed his hope that Tuesday's meeting in Asmara "would be a step towards unifying ranks and boosting the efforts of peace and national accord". He added: "the government will spare no efforts to realize peace and national accord," in pursuing a solution to the 17 year-old civil war, the report said. 

Government officials have banned the Sudanese press from reporting on the 21 September alleged assassination attempt on a pro-government journalist there, AFP reported on Tuesday. 

The National Press Council issued the memorandum to editors under orders from the attorney general office, saying media coverage would undermine the case and its investigation.  According to the report, 'Al-Wifaq' editor Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed was recovering after being hit by a small truck on Thursday night. Khartoum newspapers reported that three unnamed people had been taken into custody over the assassination attempt, widely believed to be the work of the opposition People's National Congress, party of former parliamentary speaker Hassan al-Turabi. The opposition group is accused of attempting an assassination in revenge for an article Ahmed had written. 

Sudanese authorities announced on Tuesday they had closed the border with Kenya in an effort to prevent Sudanese livestock from being infected with disease after a recent outbreak of Rift Valley Fever this month in Saudi Arabia. Khartoum took the measure after Saudi Arabia banned imports of sheep and other livestock from Yemen and several African countries, including Sudan, AFP reported on Tuesday.  According to the Saudi health ministry, the death toll from the mosquito-borne Rift Valley Fever had risen to 30 from the initial 148 cases reported, including two in Riyandh, since the disease was first reported on 11 September.  Sudanese Animal Resources Undersecretary Mohammed Salih al-Jebelabi told a press conference that "we have taken measures, including closure of the border with Kenya, to prevent our livestock being infected with the Rift Valley Fever."  He added that the border was closed to prevent livestock from entering southern Sudan, although he noted that Sudan exports animals from its central and western regions and not from the border area, the report said. The Sudan government no longer controls much of its border with Kenya, where the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army have waged war since 1983, diplomatic sources added.

Since January 1997, the NGO Operation Mercy has been operating a programme for troubled boys in Sudan's capital city, where an estimated 30,000 children live on the streets.  Due to the war, many of these boys have only one or no parents at all.  Many of them come from broken homes. The aim of the programme is to care for the needs of these boys, many of whom are abused as cheap labour, prostitutes and objects of scorn.  According to a report by Operation Mercy on 18 September, most of the children turn to crime on the streets, driven by hunger, fear, and the influence of addictions.  Furthermore, the boys suffer from malnutrition, eat from rubbish bins, and some have died.  Under the auspices of a local church, Operation Mercy employs eleven full-time staff and some part-time staff to care for the boys.

President Omar al-Bashir may meet with a prominent exiled Sudanese opposition leader in Eritrea, Foreign Minister Musafa Ismail said on state radio. The foreign minister said Eritrea had proposed bringing together President Bashir and Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani for a reconciliatory meeting, AFP said. Mirghani left Sudan after Bashir came to power in a 1989 coup that toppled the elected government in which Mirghani's Democratic Unionist Party was a partner. He has since led the National Democratic Alliance, which includes northern and southern opposition parties, including the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM). He moves between bases in Cairo and Asmara, and makes frequent visits to Britain, Libya and Saudi Arabia, AFP said. The foreign minister said a meeting would be "a step towards unification of the Sudanese rank and toward reconciliation and peace".  Bashir is also expected to meet with Eritrean president Isaias Afewerki, said state radio on Sunday. Eritrean presidential advisor Yemane GebreMeskal told IRIN that the Sudanese president was not in Eritrea on Monday.

The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) claimed it had captured the garrison town of Tahajulbolis on the main Kaduqli-Dilling road in south central Sudan. In a statement issued by Sudanese opposition radio Voice of Sudan on 22 September, the SPLA said it had inflicted "heavy loss of life and equipment" on government forces and a number of government soldiers had been killed and wounded. SPLA made a routine claim of only negligible losses on its own side. It said the capture of Tahajulbolis was the second garrison to be captured by the SPLA around the regional capital, Kaduqli, within the space of three weeks. No independent source has confirmed the capture. 

Sudanese police on Sunday used tear gas and batons to quell another anti-government demonstration by university students in the capital. In a report by the AFP on Sunday, several hundred students from the University of Sudan, said to be supporters of Hassan al-Turabi's opposition People's National Congress, were joined by students from neighbouring Nilein University. The students marched through the streets of Khartoum, shouting slogans demanding freedom and democracy.  They were later dispersed by riot police after reaching the city centre. No injuries or arrests were reported.  Since 11 September, demonstrations against military service and economic discontent resulted in outbursts of violence and riots. 

Delegates from the government and the Sudanese People's Liberation (SPLA)  opposition movement met for the second day of talks at Lake Bogoria, northwest Kenya, after Thursday's initial discussions. According to the Sudanese news agency Suna on Saturday, the meeting was opened by Ambassador Daniel Mboya, head of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)'s permanent secretariat. In his speech, he called on the two parties to hold serious discussions in the IGAD-brokered talks and reach a solution.  Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, head of the government delegation called for a unified Sudan and a comprehensive cease-fire. Nhial Deng, SPLA delegation head, renewed accusations that the government was not serious and had bombed opposition areas. 

Meanwhile, the Sudan Catholic Bishops Conference (SCBC), meeting in Pesaro, Italy, for their annual pleneary assembly, expressed support for the IGAD talks and called for a ceasefire to be adopted and implemented immediately.  It also called for all relief aid to be channelled through the UN, NGO's and Churches through "non-military flight zones and designated corridors strictly monitored by the UN". It detailed government bombings since February in Nuba Mountains and Bahr al Ghazal, saying it had caused loss of life and population displacement. It also pointed to slavery, physical maiming and war-orphans in the "border areas between North and South" Sudan, and said oil production was fuelling the conflict. The statement said the bishops were "dismayed by the forced conscription of adolescents" who were put on the frontline "without adequate military training". The OAU and the UN were accused in the statement of apparent "indifference" about the situation in Sudan. 

More than 14,000 Belgian children have signed a petition to Sudanese President Omar el Bashir, calling for the release of children abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in Uganda, since 1986. The children signed the petition in reaction to a new book "Children of Aboke", by Belgian writer Els Temmerman, detailing how Ugandan children were kidnapped and taken to Sudan.  According to Uganda's semi-official "New Vision" newspaper report on Sunday, the children are brutally abused, beaten and starved to death, and forced to fight in border wars between Uganda and Sudan.  In a communiqué signed in Canada, Sudan agreed to work with the government of Uganda towards the release of some 6,000 Ugandan abducted children and that 16 children were released on Friday from Sudan. 

Disturbances rocked Sudan last Sunday when students protesting against military service rioted in Kosti, the capital of White Nile State 280 km south of Khartoum, burning government buildings and banks, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Ensuing clashes with security forces resulted in at least two deaths. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the riots were symptomatic of general political unrest.

State Governor Badawi al-Khayr Idris was quoted by Sudanese state-run television as blaming the riots on "instigative sides". This, according to AP, was a veiled reference to followers of the Popular National Congress (PNC) party, an opposition party headed by Islamic leader Hasan al-Turabi, the report said.

Government security forces subsequently arrested many people belonging to opposition groups. Sudanese Victims of Torture Group, a human rights body based in London, issued a press release naming 58 men as having been arrested following earlier riots in Al-Fashir in western Sudan, Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea State, and Al-Ubayyid, the capital of Kordofan State. 

 In the western town of Nyala, police on Tuesday charged students who were protesting against arrests of opposition followers. There were also incidents in the southeastern town of Al-Qadarif, where, according to the governor, Mubarak Munir Haju, as quoted in the Sudanese daily, 'Al-Sahafi al-Dawli', security forces had fired into the air in order to prevent riots from breaking out. On Wednesday, however, a statement from the government spokesman's office read on Sudanese television said: "All towns in Sudan are stable and calm." 

The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) announced on Monday that they had captured Nhialdiu in Western Upper Nile, after a battle on 13 September. In a press release, Samson Kwaje, the SPLA spokesman in Nairobi, said the town was strategic in its proximity to neighbouring oil fields. He also said "all oil workers [foreign and national] are hereby warned to evacuate the area". 

On the same day, the Roman Catholic news agency, Misna, reported that a Sudanese government aircraft had bombed Narus, 45 km from the Kenyan border town of Lokichokio, killing one person and destroying a Catholic medical dispensary there. Subsequently Sudanese aircraft bombed the town for a second time, but on this occasion without causing any casualties. 

On Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il urged the United Nations to bring pressure to bear on the SPLA to halt military operations in Bahr al-Ghazal and "to stop using civilian locations such as hospitals and schools as human shields", according to AP. This was necessary so that the area could receive relief supplies and save it from "another humanitarian tragedy". 

Last Sunday, shortly before another round of peace talks was due to open in Nairobi, John Garang, the SPLA leader, said in an interview with the Qatari television channel, Al-Jazeera, that he was ready to meet Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir in an attempt to bring an end to the country's 17-year-old civil war. Garang's statement drew a favourable reaction from Sudanese Culture and Information Minister Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani, who was quoted by Sudanese state television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), as saying that the fact that Garang had now expressed readin> ess to take steps towards a peaceful solution indicated "a new language". He said he hoped this expressed "a true desire for peace". 

The peace talks sponsored by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development opened in Kenya on schedule on 21 September. The government delegation is led by Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, the president's adviser on peace affairs, and includes Social Planning Minister Qutbi al-Mahdi, according to news agencies, while the SPLA delegation is headed by Nhial Deng Nhial. The talks are being held at a hotel near Lake Bogoria, 180 km northwest of Nairobi. 

Khartoum declared a ceasefire for two weeks in the south of the country on Thursday, Sudanese state television, monitored by the BBC, reported. The minister of information and government spokesman [Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani] was reported to have said said the ceasefire became effective at 12 p.m. [sic: presumably noon] local time [0900 gmt] on Thursday, and that no military operations would be undertaken taken during its period of effectiveness except in self-defence. The report said Khartoum had taken the initiative "in an effort to achieve peace, stop the bloodshed among citizens of the country and to prepare an atmosphere conducive to the peace talks currently being held in Nairobi". Kenyan radio said on Friday that the focus of the talks was the issue of seperation of state and religion, self-rule for the south and the right of self-determination. 

Asked about Thursday's announcement, Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the SPLA told IRIN on Friday: "The government of Sudan is not very serious.  We have had these situations before.  It is just a gimmick and we don't respond to gimmicks", adding: "They are just trying to deceive the international community."

Violent clashes continued on Tuesday when police used batons, tear gas and warning shots to disperse anti-government protestors in two demonstrations in east and west Sudan.

Police in the western town of Nyali charged at students who had gathered to protest the arrest of 17 members of the opposition, AFP reported. Those arrested including members of the Popular National Congress accused of participating in other protests. In the eastern town of al-Qadarif, State Governor Mubarak Munir Haju told the local 'As-Sahafa Ad-Dawli' daily that security forces were forced to fire into the air in an effort to prevent rioting. The report said those arrested were in possession of documents with plans to agitate "subversive operations and riots" in strategic parts of the town.

This was the fifth violent protest in a week in which police have used tear gas to disperse crowds. Meanwhile, in a separate report on Sudanese state-run television on Tuesday, Sudanese government spokesman Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani, said "the reasons given to justify these destructive incidents expressed the magnitude of contradictions among the group that implemented it". It added there had been "no random arrests and those arrested would face criminal and not political charges." 

A senior US official announced on Tuesday that some countries in southern Africa would probably vote in support of Mauritius rather than Sudan in next month's vote for the African seat on the UN Security Council. The United States has campaigned to deny Sudan the role. 

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was reported by Reuters on Tuesday to have discussed the contest for the African seat in New York with representatives of the 14 countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly, urging them to bar Sudan from representing Africa on the United Nations Security Council. In an earlier Associated Press (AP) report on 13 September, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher cited UN reports that Sudan had bombed areas in the country where UN relief operations were based, calling the African nation an "unsuitable candidate". 

Tuesday's announcement suggests the American campaign was paying off, AFP reported. While the US official admitted that there were two African candidates - Sudan and Mauritius, given discussions with other countries, "quite a few indicated that they would vote for Mauritius... Nobody spoke in favour of Sudan, except procedurally," the Reuters report said. 

The report went on to add that once the vote goes to the General Assembly, the United States can be relatively confident about excluding Sudan, which has few friends outside the Islamic world. 

Sudanese peace talks are scheduled to resume in Nairobi on Thursday under the auspices of the regional body Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). IGAD sources told IRIN that a venue had not yet been decided, but would be outside Nairobi. The meeting is the first to be convened after the collapse of the limited humanitarian ceasefire in the Bahr al-Ghazal region when fighting flared up again between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and government forces, Kenyan radio reported on Tuesday. It said the meeting was the fourth of the political committee formed by IGAD to address political issues of the conflict, and would "focus on the contentious issue of the relation between the state and religion".  Other issues to be discussed include federal arrangements offered by the government to offer autonomous rule for the south, said the report, monitored by the BBC. 

SPLA spokesman Martin Okerruk told IRIN that there was "no indications that the talks would not go ahead". The SPLA is sending a delegation of nine, headed by Nhial Deng Nhial, he confirmed. Okerruk said the location outside Nairobi was not going to be disclosed in order to help the talks
succeed. 

Sudan rebels continue to violate a ceasefire agreement, creating obstacles for humanitarian relief, a Sudanese minister told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il urged the United Nations to pressure rebels to halt military operations so that relief could be facilitated in Bahr al-Ghazal. He asked the UN to "bring pressure to bear on the rebel movement (Sudan People's Liberation Army) so as to stop using civilian locations such as hospitals and schools as human shields, and to fulfil its obligations by halting military operations", AP reported. This was necessary "to ensure unhindered operations and save the area from another humanitarian tragedy" similar to the one in the region in 1998, he was quoted as saying by AP. Ismail said his government was pursing national reconciliation efforts through "direct and indirect" contacts with rebel groups. 

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced a resumption of aid flights to Bahr el Ghazal on Monday, which had been suspended after the bombing of humanitarian targets in the province. 

A new alliance of Sudanese political organisations have signed an agreement in Khartoum to work for a national accord which will solve the political crisis in Sudan. The new move by the alliance is based on an Algerian-sponsored political initiative, and includes organisations "from the left, centre and right", the London-based 'Al-Sharq al-Awsat' said on Monday. A plenary session is planned to be held in Algeria, where President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced in March that he was willing to coordinate the various Sudanese peace initiatives, 'Al-Sharq al-Awsat' said. Algeria has said it is in a unique role to this, with its shared Arab-African roots. 

'Al-Sharq al Awsat' issued a list of signatories in the new alliance, and said it followed "along the lines of the alliance of the Sudanese opposition abroad". It has a collective leadership of seven, headed by Muhammad Abu-al-Qasim Hajj Hamad. A list of signatures included the Islamic Path Party, Virtue Organisation, the Hasm Movement, World People's Friendship, United Sudanese Forces, Sudanese Revolutionary Forces, Contemporary Sudan, the Revolutionary Committees, Sudanese Pan-Arab National Action, the People's Federal Union, the National Accord, the Islamic Umma Party, Youth Forum for Dialogue, Liberal Democrats, and the Liberal Independents. 

A Sudanese government aircraft destroyed a Catholic medical dispensary when dropping 15 bombs on Narus in southern Sudan on Monday at about 9.45 a.m.  One person was killed, and at least five wounded, including two children, humanitarian sources said. The bombing of Narus, which is 45 km from the Kenyan border town of Lokichokio, was reported in Rome by the Roman Catholic Missionary News Agency, Misna. 

Information released by a Catholic diocese in southern Sudan, made available to IRIN, said three bombs were dropped on the a clinic, which belonged to the Catholic Diocese of Torit. One man was killed, and three women and two children injured, including the nurse in charge, Clementina Lobaya. None of the patients were injured. The Antonov aircraft then dropped another 12 bombs on residential areas adjacent to the home of Bishop Paride Taban, who received the information during a meeting Catholic bishops in Rome. A Sudanese NGO, Sudan Medical Care, helped evacuate the wounded to the ICRC hospital in Lokichokio, said the Catholic sources. The destruction of the clinic was condemned by the Catholic diocese in southern Sudan as an act against "innocent and defenceless civilians", who would be left without medical facilities and attention. According to information from the diocese, Ikotos camp for displaced persons was also bombed on 14 September. 

Sudanese government security forces have arrested large numbers of people belonging to opposition groups in different towns in Sudan after accusing the Popular National Congress (PNC) of inciting riots. A press release by the Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (SVTG), a Sudanese human rights body based in London, named 58 male detainees. It called on all governments and human rights organisations to urge the Sudanese government to release those held without valid charges, and uphold the right of the detainees right to fair and impartial trials. The organisation also called on the government to "ensure the physical and psychological integrity of all the detainees".

According to the press release, issued 18 September, the 58 detainees were arrested in Al-Fashir (western Sudan), Port Sudan (capital of Red Sea State in the east) and Al-Ubayyid (capital of Kordofan State) after the government accused the PNC of inciting riots. The press release said the PNC had also been accused of being "the hidden hand" behind student demonstrations protesting against school fees in Port Sudan. The PNC is the party led by Hasan al-Turabi, the former Speaker of the National Assembly and leader of the National Islamic Front (NIF. The crimes against the state department of the attorney general's office said it had started investigating the incident to determine if there was a case to be submitted to court, according to the press release. 

A Sudanese government spokesman said recent statements by the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA), John Garang, were encouraging for a peaceful solution. The minister of culture and information, Dr Ghazi Salah al-Din Atabani, was reported to have said by Sudanese state television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), that the fact that Garang had expressed readiness to take steps towards a peaceful solution indicated "a new language". He said he hoped it expressed "a true desire for peace". The minister said the statements would be evaluated in the context of "efforts being made for peace, and the reaction will be commensurate".  Garang said in a recent interview that he would be ready to meet with Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir. The gesture towards a peaceful solution to the civil war in the south comes as representatives from the two sides prepare for talks in Nairobi on Thursday, under auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). 

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) released seven Sudanese detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on 17 September. An ICRC press release said the detainees had been handed over by the SPLA in Kurmuk, southeastern Sudan, on the border with Ethiopia. With the agreement of the SPLA and the Sudan government, the detainees were then flown from the Blue Nile State to Khartoum in an ICRC plane, said the statement. The detainees had been registered and regularly visited by the ICRC during captivity and, according to ICRC procedure, were going home of their own free will. 

Meanwhile, the Sudanese news agency, Suna, monitored by the BBC, carried a statement by the secretary-general of the Peace Advisory Office, Muhammad Ata, welcoming the release as a "positive indicator" for the peace process.  He said it would promote the peace efforts expected to be exerted during the peace talks due to be held in Nairobi under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Nairobi this Thursday.  The statement said both sides had taken positive steps towards the release of prisoners, ceasefire agreements and declaration of a general amnesty. 

Violent clashes rocked Sudan for the third time in less than 10 days on Sunday when students rioted in Kosti, a strategic railhead 280 km south of Khartoum, and capital of White Nile State.  Students protesting against military service burned government buildings and banks during clashes with security forces, the Associated Press (AP) reported.  With at least two dead and several injured, the council of ministers called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Sunday to apply all necessary measures to guarantee the safety of citizens and property. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the riots in three areas in Sudan over the last week were symptomatic of general political unrest. 

State Governor Badawi al-Khayr Idris told Sudanese state-run television that the riots began when students demonstrating against mandatory military service were joined by scores of unemployed. They began burning government cars, the local government-run radio station, the state office building, banks and police stations, according to an AP report on Sunday.  Idris accused "instigative sides" of provoking the violence - a veiled reference to followers of the Popular National Congress (PNC) party, an opposition group headed by Islamic ideologue Hasan al-Turabi, the report said. 

Sunday's clash follows two other riots last week.  One woman was killed and 16 people injured in the western city of Al-Fashir in a protest over delays in the start of classes, while in another protest, five people were injured in the eastern city of Port Sudan when hundreds of students rioted against an attempt to require them to pay damage deposits on textbooks. 

In a report by Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' on 15 September, Hasan al-Turabi, secretary-general of the opposition PNC, predicted more unrest in the country. 

The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) announced on Monday that they had captured Nhialdiu in Western Upper Nile, after a battle on 13 September.  In a press release, Samson Kwaje, the SPLA spokesman in Nairobi, said the town was strategic in its proximity to neighbouring oil fields. Kwaje issued a stern warning to foreigners in the area saying that "all oil workers [foreign and national] are hereby warned to evacuate the area". The statement said Nhialdiu was the administrative base for Ler County in Western Upper Nile, and that government soldiers and militia had been forced to scatter to the towns of Bentiu and Ler. 

George Garang, editor of the SPLA newsletter in Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday that the warning to oil workers had been issued after numerous appeals to the the Canadian Talisman oil company operating in the area. He accused Khartoum of selling oil to buy weapons, thereby rendering the oil companies a "legitimate military target".  "Why should a company like Talisman, from a democratic country like Canada, be seen to be embracing a country that is killing our people?" said the spokesman. 

Meanwhile, Talisman came under heavy criticism recently in Canada.  According to a 14 September report in Toronto's 'Globe and Mail', former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis said in a speech before delegates of the International Conference on War-Affected Children in Winnipeg that, with regard to the Canadian government, "Talisman Energy remains a terrible cross of dishonour." In his remarks made on 13 September, he also demanded condemnation of Sudan "for allowing a rebel army based on its territory to use abducted, brutalized children as solders". 

John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said on Sunday that he was ready to meet Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir in an attempt to bring an end to the country's 17-year-old civil war. Speaking at last week's conference in Eritrea of the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella group for Sudan's various opposition groups, Garang was quoted in an AP report on Sunday as saying that "a political solution is the best way to end the war".  Later, in an interview with Qatari Al-Jazeera television, monitored in Cairo, he said: "People are suffering a lot.I am personally ready to meet Bashir if Khartoum wants that."  Meanwhile, with Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) talks set to resume in Nairobi on Thursday, George Garang, the Nairobi-based editor of the SPLA newsletter, told IRIN he was "less than optimistic" about the talks. He said Khartoum had continually failed to address "the separation of religion and state and, secondly, the question of self-determination for the people of the new Sudan". The SPLA representative said these had "always been the main issues". 

Given the current phase of Sudan's 17 year-old civil war, USAID has in its analysis released its 11 September Sudan complex emergency report. According to the UN Humanitarian Coordination Unit (UNHCU), there were an estimated 4 million IDPs in Sudan, including 2 million in greater Khartoum and 1.2 million in the transitional zone and southern areas.  The report added that the UNHCR had broken down the amount of Sudanese refugees according to region, including 175,000 in Uganda, 80,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 58,507 in Ethiopia, 32,000 in Kenya, 35,500 in the Central African Republic, and 20,000 in Chad.  In the meantime, Sudan hosted refugees from other countries, including 147,302 Eritreans registered in Sudan as of January 2000.  With the flare-up of fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea in May, 2000, another group of Eritrean refugees, estimated to number up to 90,000, fled to eastern Sudan: of this group, an estimated 21,000 have returned to Eritrea. 

 The USAID report examines the background of the conflict, the numbers affected and the current situation.  In addition, it discusses the issues of food security, health and nutrition, the inter-ethnic peace process, refugees returning, as well as USAID/OFDA's humanitarian assistance totalling almost US $ 22 million. 

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has been lobbying other UN members to back US efforts to bar Sudan from representing Africa on the UN Security Council. 

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, citing UN reports that Khartoum had bombed areas in the country where UN relief operations are based, described the African nation an "unsuitable candidate", according to an AP report on Wednesday. 

The report said that in addition to Britain, France, Kuwait and others, Albright had raised the issue of Sudan's unsuitability with the foreign ministers of several African countries. The Organisation of African Unity as a rule picks an African country to take up a rotating seat on the council for the following year, with the General Assembly customarily approving the choice of the regional group.  The report added, however, that Egypt, one of the countries Albright had approached, favoured Sudan'scandidacy.

According to the report, an estimated two million people had been killed as a result of fighting, starvation and disease during the 17 years of the war waged by the Khartoum government against the south. Sudan was regarded by State Department officials as having one of Africa's worst human rights records, it added. 

A Reuters report has reported that three women were injured and 26 arrested when police used teargas and batons to break up a demonstration in Khartoum against a decree banning women from working in public places such as restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and petrol stations. 

According to the report, dozens of women representing women's groups and civil societies had been holding a peaceful protest on Monday to protest against the decree when they were attacked by police. Many women had condemned the decree, claiming it violated their constitutional rights and rendered them unemployed at a time when it was difficult to get jobs, the report said.  It added, however, the constitutional court had earlier, on  Saturday, suspended the implementation of the decree after petitions had been filed by several women and human rights groups. 

The Sudanese government delegation will leave for Nairobi within the next few days to participate in peace talks with the opposition Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).  Omdurman radio, monitored by the BBC, reported on 13 September that the talks would be held on 21 September. According to the Sudanese news agency (Suna), the delegation will be led by the presidential adviser on peace affairs, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir. Sudan has been fighting a civil war for the past 17 years. 

In a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) held last week in Eritrea, John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), called the NDA "the greatest achievement of the Sudanese people in their struggle for a just peace and a qualified unity". 

In his speech, made available to IRIN, Garang spoke in depth on the problems the country and his movement faced, saying: "Sudan must evolve a commonality that gives effective expression to all its diversities." Regarding the 17-year-old civil war that has ripped the nation apart, Garang said the main problem of Sudan was that there had never been a "national project" which included all the parameters of Sudan and could unite the different groups and nationalities. The successive governments only assumed unity and tried to base that unity on two parameters, Arabism and Islamism," he said.

Highly critical of the National Islamic Front (NIF), Garang said there could never be a lasting peace, as: "NIF is based on a strange philosophy of self-destruction, of some Sudanese communities being mobilised to fight other Sudanese communities," adding that "NIF is pulling the country apart, while the NDA is bringing the Sudanese together." 

Eritrean radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported on 9 September that some 350 NDA representatives and renowned individuals from Sudan and abroad were in attendence. The meeting marked the second time the NDA had met since it first met in Asmara in 1995, the report said. 

In response to statements made by the Canadian based Talisman Energy Corporation concerning its relations with NGOs working in the oilfields of Sudan's Unity State and in Khartoum, Gary Kenny, coordinator for the Inter-Church on Africa, on behalf of the NGOs working in the area, issued a clarification for what it termed "misleading public inferences that these NGOs are working together with the company in Unity State". 

The statement said, given the controversial nature of oil development in Sudan, the NGOs wanted to clearly state that "in the provision of humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable populations in Unity State, there is no relationship between these NGOs and any of the companies involved in the oil industry in Sudan."  The statement went on to read "We strongly object to Talisman Energy's allegations that they are working together as a team with the international humanitarian community.  Talisman's public statements infer a relationship that does not exist in Unity State." 

Meanwhile, the Canadian newspaper, "Globe and Mail", reported on Monday that Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy was being criticised for "failing to crack down on Talisman Energy Inc of Calgary". The company helps run an oil project that human-rights groups say is funding atrocities committed by the Sudanese government in a war against its own separatist rebels, the report said. 

In response to a petition by the Sudanese Women's Union, Sudan's Constitutional Court suspended a controversial decree on Saturday by the Khartoum state governor, banning women from working in some public places.

On 3 September, Governor Mazjoub al-Khalifa, citing Islamic sharia law, barred women from working in petrol stations, hotels and cafes in a move which angered women's and human rights groups, Reuters reported. However, Saturday's court ruling decreed that: "Women in the private and public sectors who were prevented by the governor's decree from working should continue to work in their places until a final decision is taken on the that case." 

Under the theme "stop the war and build a new Sudan", the oppositionNational Sudanese Alliance (NDA) began its second congress at the Red SeaHotel in Massawa in eastern Eritrea.

In a report by Eritrean Radio, and monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on 9 September, the chairman of the NDA, Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, gave details of the NDA's activities and the problems it had encountered over the past five years. He hailed the efforts which had been made and continued to be made by the Eritrean people and their government to bring about peace in the Sudan. In addition, he thanked Libya, Egypt and Uganda.

Three hundred and fifty NDA representatives were participating in the NDA congress.  The first congress was held in Asmara in 1995. 

Eritrean troops and Eritrean-based Sudanese opposition forces have moved into positions along the border with eastern Sudan, according to news reports on Wednesday quoting the independent Sudanese daily, 'As-Sahafi Ad-Dawli'. The reports, which were not independently confirmed, said the Eritrean soldiers and opposition forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) had moved from the Eritrean interior to points just across the border from Shelalub, Awad and Haferet in Sudan's eastern Kassala state. 

The newspaper, reporting from Kassala, said the Eritrean and SPLA forces had taken up the new positions to thwart Sudanese government army plans to retake Hameshkurib town, which the SPLA occupied last year. 

A new US charge d'affaires for Sudan, Raymond Brown, has been appointed to Sudan, official media reports said on Thursday. Brown will replace Donald Teitelbaum, who has been posted to Uganda. The reports said he would be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and travel regularly to Sudan. 

Sudanese deputy Foreign Minister Gebriel Rorec, who met with the two envoys Wednesday, told them of Khartoum's readiness for "continued" negotiations with the US to "remove obstacles that hinder the normalisation of ties with Washington."

"We are only asking the US not to create problems in the peace process,"  Rorec was quoted as saying. Sudan has accused the United States of offering political and military assistance to the southern opposition group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). 

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has earned US $320 million from crude oil sales and pipeline oil transmission in developing southern Sudanese oil fields, the official China Economic Information Centre of the state Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. 

"Since August 30 last year, when the zone began to export the first tanker of oil, it has produced 64 million barrels of crude oil and gained US $1.16 billion from oil sales and pipeline oil transmission," it said. "A CNPC official said that the development of the Sudanese oilfield is a win-win project, which has paved the way for China's large enterprises to develop business overseas." 

Karin Sham Poo, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, told IRIN on Wednesday it was "extremely unfortunate" that governor of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, had issued a decree this week barring women from doing any jobs in the city where they came into contact with men. 

She said the ban, which would exclude women from working in hotels, fuel stations, restaurants and other public places came just days after she had visited Sudan to urge the government to ratify the UN-sponsored Convention of Eradication of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). She  said UNICEF would raise the issue "at the highest level" to seek its immediate abrogation.

President Isayas Afewerki will hold talks in coming days on the sidelines
of the UN Millennium Summit in New York with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on "strengthening and developing" bilateral relations, Eritrean state radio reported on Wednesday.

"Ten days ago the two presidents met in Djibouti at the inauguration of the newly elected Somali president," it said. Before he left for New York, it said Afewerki had met John Garang, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM, and the chairman of the opposition Sudanese National Democratic Alliance, Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani. The radio report gave no further details of the talks.

Egypt and Sudan on Tuesday signed a new trade agreement that will give preferential customs treatment to ease commercial exchanges between the two neighbouring countries, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported. It said the agreement had been signed at the weekend by Egyptian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Yusuf Butrus Ghali and visiting Sudanese Foreign Trade Minister Makki Ali Balayil.

After the agreement was signed, Ghali recalled that both nations are members of Comesa, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. He said they had agreed that joint technical committees would supervise execution of the agreement in coming weeks. The trade agreement would include maintaining cooperation "between the Egyptian and Sudanese international trade points in the domain of trade and export data exchange". The two countries also agreed to set up a joint business council and launch cooperation in the banking sector, as well as in  industry, agriculture, and investment.

The news agency said trade between Egypt and Sudan had reached a high of US $86 million in 1998, and then dropped to US $78 million last year. Egyptian exports to Sudan comprise mainly rice, flour, medicines, fertilisers and foodstuffs, while the Sudanese exports to Egypt include cotton, sesame and live camels. 

The government of Sudan said on Monday it would attend scheduled peace talks on 21 September in Nairobi, Kenya with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), state news media reported. Ahmad Ibrahim al-Tahir, presidential adviser on peace issues, told Omdurman radio that talks would go ahead as planned.

The talks are to be held under the auspices of the regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). Since the last meeting in April, the two sides in Sudan's 17-year civil war have accused each other of repeated ceasefire violations. An SPLM spokesman in Nairobi, who blamed the government for stalling the talks, told IRIN the Sudanese government had changed the timetable for peace talks three times. 

A Sudanese human rights organisation has demanded the release of a lawyer detained for three weeks without charge. It also pledged to follow up on the cases of a journalist and another lawyer recently freed from unexplained detentions. Sudanese Group for Human Rights (SGHR) chairman Ghazi Sulayman told AFP Monday his group had demanded the release of lawyer Abubakr Abd al-Raziq Adam, whom he said had been held without charges since August 13. 

He also said SGHR would file a complaint with the Constitutional Court next week over the cases of journalist Alula Burhe Kedani and lawyer Adel Taha Mu'awwad, who were released Saturday after being held without charges for eight and 10 days, respectively.

The Umma party has decided to participate in meetings of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Asmara through its membership in the domestic NDA, a senior official of the party was Monday quoted by a Khartoum newspaper as saying. News reports said Umma Party Vice-Chairman Umar Nur al-Da'im had decided it would be represented in a 21-member  delegation of the domestic NDA that would proceed on Wednesday to seek to take part in the NDA general conference to be held in the Eritrean capital next Friday. 

The Umma party withdrew the opposition NDA based in Cairo last March, but retained its membership in the NDA branch which includes all other opposition parties and operates within Sudan.

John Garang, leaderof the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has said some items on the agenda and a two-track peace initiative were the main reasons for the stalling of the peace efforts in Sudan. An SPLA spokesman in Nairobi told IRIN on Monday the Sudanese government had also changed the timetable for peace talks three times. 

Meanwhile, Khartoum called on the US to play a role in ending Sudan's 17-year civil war, while at the same time cautioning Washington to distance itself from rebel movements. Speaking with Egyptian officials on a visit to Cairo on 2 September, AFP quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as saying: "Everyone agrees that the American role in the installation of peace in Sudan is important." 

He went on to say, however, that while there has been an improvement in Washington's stance on the conflict during the past year, with regard to the SPLM, "the United States has [shown] and continues to show favour to the rebel movement". Concerning America's position on the peace initiative, Isma'il said it would "be best if the United States adopts a neutral position", adding: "We are currently working to improve the American position so that it becomes more neutral."

Meanwhile, on Friday, Hasan Ahmad al-Hasan, the northern opposition Umma Party spokesman in Cairo, said Washington had proposed a peace plan to end Sudan's civil war, calling on Khartoum to give southerners the right to self-determination immediately. American officials are also offering to meet leaders of the various northern and southern Sudanese opposition groups to discuss alternative ideas at the same time as a conference of the opposition umbrella group, the National Democratic Alliance, opening on Wednesday in Asmara. The Umma Party is opposed to Washington's proposal, calling instead for a plan "to first give a chance to a solution guaranteeing Sudan's unity," Hasan said. 

Officials of Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) this week held talks on the humanitarian situation with a delegation from the international relief agency Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), the state news agency, Suna, reported on Friday. 

In a brief dispatch from Khartoum, it said both sides had "stressed the importance of promoting the humanitarian aid programmes in the southern states, supporting rehabilitation projects and ensuring the efficiency and safety of humanitarian operations". 

The general commissioner of Humanitarian Aid, Sulaf al-Din Salih, was quoted as saying he had explained to MSF the government guarantees to ensure the safety of the humanitarian aid operations in south Sudan, where government forces have been engaged in a 17-year civil war with southern rebels. 

A senior Sudanese opposition figure has called on dissidents in exile to return and oppose the government at home. Sidahmed al-Hussein told AFP in an interview on Thursday: "Having lived in-exile for 11 years as a guest in foreign countries, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has become so helpless and inactive that it may yield to any pressures by the host countries," it said.

Sidahmed al-Hussein, deputy secretary general of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) also said that the NDA, which operates in Egypt and Eritrea, had weakened after President Omar Bashir won support abroad, particularly in Egypt. While the NDA in the past could place conditions for reconciliation with the government, "it was now pressured" by Egypt and Libya "into agreeing to go into unconditional dialogue" with the Khartoum government.

"The Sudanese people have a history of toppling totalitarian regimes with popular uprisings," he said citing the ouster of General Ibrahim Abboud in 1964, and Marshal Gaafer Nimeiri in 1985. 

China on Wednesday denied a British newspaper report that it has mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers and prisoners to protect Chinese oil interests in Sudan. The Associated Press (AP) quoted a foreign ministry statement describing the report in 'The Sunday Telegraph' as "absolutely ridiculous". The newspaper reported that the Chinese were brought in by aircraft and ship to guard Sudanese oil fields in which state-owned China National Petroleum Corp is a leading partner. The report quoting Western counter-terrorism officials cited an internal document from the Sudanese military which said as many as 700,000 Chinese security personnel were available for action. 

"It's a completely made-up story to defame China," the foreign ministry statement said. It said China viewed Sudan's 17-year civil war as an "internal" conflict and that China never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries. 

Sudan has proposed 3 September as the date for holding the next round of peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a state radio report said on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, Libya's minister for African affairs, Ali Triki, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa planned to meet with Sudanese officials next month in a bid to redouble efforts at ending the civil war, news reports said on Wednesday. The reports, quoting sources in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, said the decision to revive the initiative had been taken at a recent meeting of the Executive Council of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States, which was held in Asmara, Eritrea. 

The sources said the Sudanese foreign minister, Mustapha Osman Ismail, would attend the forthcoming meeting. Triki met with Ismail in Khartoum on Monday to discuss the Libyan plan to revive the national reconciliation initiative.

Sudan's Roman Catholic bishops have condemned Khartoum's continued bombing of civilian targets and called on the United Nations to monitor a ceasefire. In a statement sent to AFP in Nairobi, the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference (SCBRC) expressed "deep and unanimous concern for the continued bombardment of civilian targets in the war-ravaged region." 

"We demand that the current ceasefire be strictly observed by the warring parties in the country and land corridors and military 'no-fly-zones' be established to facilitate humanitarian activities in the southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile," the statement said. 

It also called for a strict UN monitoring and assessment of the ceasefire to avert violations that have characterised similar initiatives in the past. "The UN, and not the government of Sudan, should be entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring and clearing flights to the regions mentioned above," the bishops said. 

The bishops also appealed to countries and multinationals to immediately end their oil production activities in Sudan. "This is because the revenues generate the continuation of the war that will inevitably annihilate the people of southern Sudan, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile," the bishops said. 

Ethiopia has agreed with Sudan and the UNHCR to repatriate thousands of its nationals exiled in neighbouring Sudan, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Wednesday. The spokesman said UNHCR had agreed last September to withdraw blanket refugee for Ethiopians still living in Sudan after concluding that that the risk of political prosecution in Ethiopia no longer remained. 

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians fled political repression prior to the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1991, primarily to Sudan and Kenya. Many took up refuge in large camps in Sudan, while others succeeded in integrating into Sudanese society by learning Arabic and moving to the larger cities there. 

Paul Stromberg, the UNHCR spokesman in Nairobi, told IRIN that officially, some 12,000 Ethiopian refugees were currently living in camps in Sudan and receiving financial assistance. He added, however, that another 10,000 were not officially register red and living elsewhere in Sudan. To date, 2,047 of the refugees had been screened for acceptance by Ethiopian authorities thus far. 

Citing political prosecution if they return, he said 1,200 people had petitioned UNHCR to maintain their refugee status. While encouraging more people to come forward for repatriation, Stromberg said "present and future petitions to maintain refugee status will be done on a case by case basis." He added he hoped the repatriation programme would be completed by the end of this year. 

Sudan and Ethiopia will soon sign an agreement whereby Sudan would provide Ethiopia with its petroleum requirements, the official Suna news agency of Sudan reported on Wednesday. It quoted a source as saying the two sides would also discuss a number of issues of common interest. The source said a delegation from the Ethiopian Petroleum Corporation would visit the country next month to sign a contract. 

Roger Winter, the executive director of the US Committee for Refugees has criticised United Nations Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Eric Vraalsen for saying that the UN-led Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief effort was is "in very good shape." 

"This optimistic assessment is wrong, misleading, and strangely out of touch with recent events in Sudan, the world's largest ongoing humanitarian emergency," Winter said in a statement released by the committee last week. He said that OLS, which delivers humanitarian relief supplies to hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan, was in disarray and faced some of the most serious threats in its 11-year history. 

Winter said OLS flights into southern Sudan were stopped for two days two weeks ago "because of a management error" within OLS. The halt came 48 hours after an eight-day stoppage because of bombing raids. Last week, he said the OLS reaction to a resumption of bombing raids had been weak, and added that it had failed to condemn the Sudanese government for the raids. He also alleged recent infighting among OLS officials had impeded the ability of OLS security experts to monitor dangerous conditions on the ground in southern Sudan, according to aid workers. "International relief workers risking their lives in southern Sudan depend on OLS security assessments that must be timely and accurate," Winter said. He also accused Khartoum of continuing to "manoeuvre for more control over OLS and potentially tighter restrictions". 

He also accused Sudanese officials of continuing to block OLS humanitarian aid to stricken areas of the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan, and extensive areas of Western Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria Provinces in the south. Nor does OLS operate in conflict areas in North Eastern Sudan. 

"In short, OLS is not allowed to help hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people," he said. "Massive numbers of vulnerable Sudanese civilians are in terrible and deteriorating shape. OLS exists solely to meet their humanitarian needs. Contrary to what some UN officials claim, OLS cannot by definition be in 'great shape' when the people it exists to serve are in such desperate shape." 

In an interview with IRIN last week, the UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Eric Vraalsen insisted after talks with the government in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital: "I would use this opportunity to urge the parties to the conflict to redouble their efforts to seek a political solution to the conflict and in so doing the establishment of a comprehensive, negotiated ceasefire, which will make it possible for OLS to go all over the country in peaceful conditions." 

Vraalsen, who told IRIN in the interview that OLS was "very good shape" following the temporary stoppage earlier this month to relief flights from its base in Lokichokio in northwest Kenya, also said OLS had not had access to eastern Equatoria for a "long, long time". He said he had also discussed the situation of tens of thousands of displaced people in West and Upper Nile with the government, and that it had agreed to the mission of a new humanitarian assessment team to the area. "We have an agreement (with the government of Sudan). It's a signed document between the foreign minister and myself. There is a paragraph in that document which talks about this assessment mission, so that was agreed." He said the mission would go to the area "as soon as possible". 

He also said he had told the Sudanese government that OLS would continue "to work on the basis of previous agreements and on the humanitarian guidelines that have also been adopted by the General Assembly and all the bodies of the UN and also on the principles of transparency, impartiality, neutrality and accountability. That message was conveyed to them." He also said that the issue of a Sudanese representative being based in Lokichokio - an issue raised by the US Red Cross in its criticism - was a matter for the Kenyan and Sudanese governments, and not the UN.

The Sudanese government has sent troop reinforcements by train to Bahr el Ghazal State in southern Sudan in a bid to rescue forces from the Aweil and Wau garrisons from rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a Sudanese opposition radio broadcast reported. The 'Voice of Sudan, Voice of the National Democratic Alliance' in a report monitored by the BBC said that in the ensuring battle on 23 August, rebels forces had destroyed the strategic Bahr al-Arab bridge. 

"The government forces were surrounded between Bahr al-Arab and Lol River, and their two trains could not return to Bahr al-Arab or advance towards Lol River. The leadership of the movement calls on the government forces and the local militias, who hail from the Ruzayqat tribes, to keep away from the manoeuvres of the military regime, and to work towards coexistence instead of falling in the traps of the regime which is trying to sow seeds of difference through the divide-and-rule policy," it said. 

Sudan and Ethiopia have signed an agreement with UNHCR for the voluntary repatriation of Ethiopian refugees who fled into Sudan before 1991, the official Suna news agency of Sudan reported this week. The agreement was signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Saturday. 

It said the government refugee commissioner, Muhammad Ahmad al-Aghbash, said the repatriation programme would begin on 1 December and last a month.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had sent an aircraft with humanitarian relief supplies for Eritrean refugees in Sudan. The official SPA news agency said the aircraft was the fifth recently sent to the eastern Sudanese town of Kassala with food and shelter material.

In Khartoum, state television quoted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as pledging his government's support to newly elected Somali President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan and his administration. 

"Sudan will provide all assistance to the new Somali government to rehabilitate what has been destroyed by war," said Bashir, who made the remarks on his return home from Abdiqassim Salad's inauguration in Arta,  Djibouti.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has accused the United States of supporting and assisting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).  In remarks published by the newspaper 'Al-Sahafi Al-Dawli', he said Washington "openly sides with the rebel movement and offers it political and military assistance".

Referring to a state department spokesman's remarks on Friday that Khartoum was continuing to bomb civilian targets in southern Sudan as part of its long civil war with the rebels, he was quoted as saying: "The American administration repeats allegations by the rebel movement without bothering to verify them." He insisted the there had been no bombing of civilian targets and accused the SPLA of using humanitarian relief sites in Southern Sudan as "protection shields". 

The state department spokesman, however, said the attacks had no military purpose and were endangering relief efforts.

A member of Sudan ruling National Congress Party has said that the current climate in relations with Egypt was "conducive for integration and unity" between the two neighbours. In remarks reported by the official Suna news agency, the ruling party's external relations secretary, Mahdi Ibrahim, told a news conference on Sunday ater a visit to Cairo that Egyptian officials had supported the country's call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Sudan. 

"He pointed out that his meeting with President Husni Mubarak underscored the importance of integration and unity between Sudan and Egypt," the Suna dispatch said. 

At least 25 people were killed in clashes between Arab and African groups in west Sudan in recent days, AFP quoted reported on Monday. Quoting the a report from Ginaina, the capital of West Darfur State in the daily 'Al-Ayam', it said 16 people were killed in clashes in the past two days in Kebkabiyah, Gulu and Trinte in the western parts of the state. It added that nine other people were killed last week in fighting between Zaghawah and Arab Gumur tribes in nearby Kulbus area. Quoting a regional government source, the daily said senior executives and security officials rushed from the regional capital to the scene and brought the situation under control. 

United Nations Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Eric Vraalsen, arrived in Kenya on Wednesday for talks with the government, NGOs and other humanitarian officials from Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), UN officials told IRIN. The officials said Vraalsen, who arrived from Sudan, held talks with Kenyan Foreign Minister Bonaya Godana on the UN-led OLS programme which involves some three dozen UN and private international agencies. Vraalsen's visit to the region comes in the wake of a brief suspension of OLS operations from 8-16 August following a series of bombing raids in which the property of some humanitarian organisations was damaged. "He is talking to all the players on how they see the situation," a UN official told IRIN.  "There are many long standing issues to discuss with the government of Kenya about the management of the humanitarian operation, as well as sounding out the prospects for peace."

On Tuesday, Sudanese state television said that First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha, had told Vraalsen his government "is keen that humanitarian aid should be delivered to those affected by war in southern Sudan". It added: "The first vice-president stressed the importance of the commitment to the agreement on Operation Lifeline Sudan, the exercise of transparency when delivering relief and avoidance of exploitation of humanitarian activities for military purposes."

Meanwhile, Karin Sham Poo, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, also arrived in Kenya from Sudan on Wednesday, a UNICEF spokesman said. He said she was visiting the OLS base at Lokichokkio in northwest Kenya on Wednesday before travelling to the capital, Nairobi.

President Omar Bashir of Sudan this week dispatched his government's secretary for foreign relations and former ambassador to the United States, Mahdi Ibrahim, to Egypt for talks on improving relations between the two ruling parties. Sudanese state television quoted Egyptian Foreign  Minister Amr Musa as saying Egypt was "keenly following" events in its southern neighbour. "He said such contacts were important given the fact that the National Congress delegation had expressed the desire to establish mutual coordination with the [governing] Egyptian National Democratic party, besides general coordination between the various other Egyptian and Sudanese organisations," the television report said. 

Karin Sham Poo, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, has appealed to the authorities in Sudan to sign a 20-year-old treaty promoting equal opportunities for women. In remarks widely reported by news agencies, she was quoted as saying: "I urge the government of Sudan to ratify [the treaty] and make its commitment to its women, not a passive one, but an obligation for the succeeding generations to honour and uphold." The reports said she had met Suad El-Fatih, the presidential adviser for women and children's affairs, and other officials to discuss the UN-sponsored Convention for the Eradication of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Sudan has outlawed exports of its staple food sorghum, the privately-owned 'Al-Ayam' newspaper reported on Monday. The daily quoted Ahmed al-Tigani Saleh, adviser to the foreign trade minister, as saying the ministry had ordered the ban because of a drop in sorghum reserves and an expected fall in output this season. It did not say when the ban had been imposed. The only exemptions, Saleh said, would be for exporters who had signed contracts prior to the ban. News reports said Sudan usually bans sorghum exports when there is a shortage of the commodity in the country or in a neighbouring country. In January 1996, a ban was imposed because of critical shortages in neighbouring Eritrea and Ethiopia. It was lifted in October, 1998, after a bumper crop. Farmers in Gedaref, the main sorghum growing district, were quoted as saying pests and poor rains had result in the loss of nearly three-quarters of the current crop. Sudan exports sorghum to Japan, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and a number of European countries.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il held talks at the weekend in neighbouring Eritrea with the leader of the opposition Ummah Party, Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, on the sidelines of the Sahel-Saharan Executive Council meeting, state television reported on Monday. In a statement, Mahdi said: "I thank brother Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il for visiting me when he came to Asmara to attend the Sahel-Saharan meeting. We discussed mutual concerns and ways of supporting the efforts to find a political settlement in Sudan, which we hope, will bring about a just peace, stop the killing and achieve democratic transformation through political means." 

Relief operations in Sudan have been proceeding normally since the decision to resume relief flights on 16 August, UN officials told IRIN on Monday. The UN suspended the flights on 8 August after bombing raids in which the property of some humanitarian organisations was damaged.

"We are operating normally in Sudan again," said a representative of the relief consortium, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). In a separate statement at the weekend, WFP said it had received "adequate assurances" on the security of UN property and personnel. "It is hoped that the security situation will allow continuous relief operations," the statement said.

In a related development, Social Planning Minister Chol Deng discussed the "problems and obstacles" facing OLS with the ambassadors of donor nations last Thursday, according to a state television report.

It said the ambassadors had stressed the importance of the humanitarian operation being able to operate normally and that he had asked them in turn to redouble international efforts aimed at achieving a "comprehensive"  ceasefire between government forces and rebels in the south of the country. 

UN officials told IRIN that the UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Eric Vraalsen, was holding similar talks in the capital, Khartoum, on Monday. They said he was accompanied by officials representing UN agencies working in Sudan. 

Meanwhile, WFP said it had started emergency food distributions to nearly 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had started arriving in the Bentiu, Upper Nile State, and in Rubkona in Unity State since the beginning of the month.

"Recent nutritional surveys showed global malnutrition rates of 28.6 percent in Bentiu, and 30 percent in Rubkona," the statement said. "WFP replenished its stocks in the two towns during the week and provided additional food for supplementary feeding of the malnourished children." 

The Sudanese government has said that it hoped diplomatic relations with the United States would be fully restored. 

In a statement released by its embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, it said: "The government of Sudan hopes that reason will prevail in the US external policy towards Sudan and that the current US-Sudan dialogue will embrace all issues, including bilateral matters in order to pave the way for the full restoration of diplomatic ties between Sudan and the US." 

It said the statement had been timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the "unprovoked" US missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant. The attack followed bomb blasts which destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 

Despite a resumption of UN humanitarian relief flights, serious concerns remain over whether relief operations can survive a government bombing strategy in the south, the US Committee for Refugees said on Thursday. It said southern Sudan should, if necessary, be declared a "special humanitarian zone" with automatic right of access for relief agencies. A statement released by the organisation said US and UN policy makers "should not rest easy" as the viability of the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) remained "in serious jeopardy". The statement said the Sudanese government still denied OLS access to many needy locations, particularly in western Upper Nile Province, and still accused international aid agencies of being "virtual enemies of the state". Sudanese officials have asked for an essential OLS base camp in northwest Kenya to be closed, and signalled a desire to impose new clearance procedures, the Committee said. 

"It is noteworthy that the Sudanese government's attacks and harassment of OLS efforts this year have occurred in the middle of southern Sudan's annual 'hunger gap' period, when local farmers' food stocks are lowest prior to harvests", the statement said. This was part of a pattern of the Sudanese authorities barring international aid to key locations at critical moments.  "It is only a matter of time before Sudanese officials take another round of steps to disrupt or irreparably cripple OLS," the statement said. The US Committee for Refugees warned that the UN and US should be prepared to declare southern Sudan a "special humanitarian zone" with automatic right of access for all life-saving humanitarian efforts. 

The opposition Beja Congress has accused the government of Sudan of bombing villages in eastern Sudan, and wounding civilians. Leader of the Beja Congress, Sheik Omar Tahir, told the London-based 'Al-Hayat' newspaper that the Khartoum government had targeted Hamashkoreb, northeast of Kassala town, in "continuous aerial bombardments". He said that the government had bombed Koranic schools and Rashai, in the same region. According to Tahir, whose organisation comes under the armed opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance (NDA), there was photographic evidence to back up his claims.  Hamashkoreb had become a "military target", said Tahir. Government soldiers on patrol in the town had also opened fire on seven civilians, wounding three of them seriously, 'Al-Hayat' said.

The leader of the Beja Congress said in the interview that the government was trying to "exterminate" the Beja people of eastern Sudan "on the pretext that they were supporting the NDA forces". He said his forces would not lay down arms until they had achieved their "legitimate rights". The oil pipeline would remain a target for Beja military operations as the government was using oil revenue to support its war effort, Tahir said.

The bombing campaign in southern Sudan contradicts President Omar al Bashir's international "charm offensive", the London-based 'Economist' said on Thursday. "Sudan has been remarkably successful in breaking out of its diplomatic isolation" the article said. This, despite the fact it had been until recently shunned as a "rogue" state and surrounded by enemies. The UN imposed sanctions after Sudanese agents were accused of an assassination attempt on Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995, and further sanctions were imposed when the US put Sudan on the list of countries supporting terrorism. "In the past two years, luck and diplomatic skills have enabled Sudan to wriggle out of this cage," 'The Economist' said. The US - although deeply divided on how to handle the country - has reopened its embassy, and European countries are "keen to take commercial advantage of Sudan's new oil industry". Northern politicians who fled into exile in the early 1990s to escape a repressive military-Islamist government have been successfully persuaded to return, and there is greater freedom of the press. The economy is expected to see a seven percent growth, and oil revenue is expected to provide 22 percent of the budget this year, the article said. 

'The Economist' warned that despite the optimism, Sudanese politics "are ambivalent and contradictory". With secessionist movements in the south fighting since 1955, the article argued that religious and ethnic differences were not the main cause of the war. "Basically, it is the south against Khartoum". Power in Khartoum was held in the hands of "a few families...connected to certain religious sects, which have become political parties". It said that in fact the war had become "even nastier" with oil "giving the war a new cause". Rebel threats against the oil fields had resulted in Khartoum bombing, re-arming, and "pouring out militaristic propaganda". 

Senior officials from the northern opposition Umma party (UP) have held meetings with Dr Hassan al-Turabi, former speaker of parliament and secretary-general of the Popular National Congress. Turabi, a militant Islamist, split from the government this year. According to a report in the Khartoum daily 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm', Turabi met the head of Umma's political sector, Mubarak al-Fadil, last Saturday and held talks about a national consensus and the need for a new political system. Both sides agreed to strengthen relations between the two parties, the report said. The UP vice-chairman, Dr Omar Nur al-Da'im, said the meeting between the two parties "came within the context of the UP's plan to seek to engage in a dialogue with all political forces", 'Al-Ra'y al'Amm' reported. He denied the meeting demonstrated an alliance between the UP and Turabi's party.

Guinea worm disease cases have declined in much of Africa this year, but remain a particular problem in southern Sudan. There were 66,097 known cases of guinea worm disease in Sudan last year, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Outside Sudan, there were 12,097 cases of guinea worm disease in the first six months of the year, 18 percent less than the 14,828 cases reported during the same period last year, CDC said. According to CDC, civil war in southern Sudan has impeded efforts to eradicate the illness.

Victims of the disease often suffer crippling joint damage when larvae grow into worms up to one meter long and later emerge in the body through painful skin blisters. It is one of the world's most preventable diseases, if the larvae, through filter systems, can be removed from the water supply over the course of a year. The World Health Organisation said transmission of guinea worm disease has ended in almost all countries outside Africa. 

All humanitarian relief flights were due to resume throughout Sudan this week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the flight suspension, imposed on 8 August, had been lifted after the Secretary-General was reassured by President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan that "all measures" were being put in place to ensure the safety of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief personnel and aircraft. "The Secretary-General trusts that the Government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict will continue to fully honour their commitment to ensure the safety and security of relief workers," the spokesman told reporters in New York. He said the warring parties must also protect "the vulnerable populations whose urgent needs UN humanitarian personnel are trying to address throughout the country". 

Ikotos town in eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, was bombed on Monday, according to the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Spokesman Kristen Flogstad told IRIN he confirmed by radio that one bomb was dropped in Ikotos, where the organisation has a relief base. Six bombs were also dropped on Monday on Palotaka, about 15 km from Parajok, eastern Equatoria, the spokesman added.  Flogstad said it was the first time Ikotos, southeast of the regional capital Torit, had been bombed since last September. "It's a way of spreading terror", he said. During a bombing campaign last year, civilians fled to the nearby mountains and aid workers built bomb shelters, he told IRIN.

The date for the next round of Sudan peace talks by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) meeting has been shifted from 21 August to either 28 August or 4 September, a diplomatic source told IRIN on Thursday. He said the Sudan government requested the change saying it was "very busy"  and wanted "more time" before it could come to the talks. The other reason given for the postponement was a reconciliation conference which took place from 7-15 August which involved all Sudanese parties, including the opposition. "They [government] wanted to know its outcome and deliberate on the issues and prepare for the IGAD meeting," the diplomat said. He, however, noted that there is "a lot of fighting going on" and the situation was "very bleak".

A delegation of United States intelligence agents remains in Sudan, investigating allegations that Sudan "sponsors terrorism" and is involved in manufacturing Scud missiles, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail complained. Ismail was quoted by a Khartoum daily as saying the delegation, which arrived in June, "is still in Sudan carrying out its assignment of verifying allegations that the Sudan sponsors terrorism". The delegation reportedly comprises experts from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the State Department, AFP reported on Wednesday. Local newspapers cited Ismail as challenging the US delegation to "verify this Scud accusation by locating the plant". Some members of the US intelligence delegation left at the beginning of July, but Ismail claimed members of the team had been continuously present since it arrived in June, AFP reported. 

Former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the northern Umma opposition party, is involved in mediation efforts between the Eritrea and Sudan, according to a Sudanese newspaper. Sadiq al-Mahdi was due in the Eritrean capital Asmara this week to begin official talks with President Isayas Afewerki, the Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al-Am' said on Tuesday.  Talks would focus on ties between Sudan and Eritrea and ways of "addressing the crisis between the two countries", the newspaper said. Quoting "political sources", the report said the UP official in charge of the political sector, Mubarak al-Fadil, would join Mahdi in Asmara. Fadil had held several meetings with "high-level government officials" resulting in a recent meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and the external relations minister, Mustafa Uthman, 'Al-Ra'y al-Am' reported. It said both sides had responded positively to the UP efforts. 

All humanitarian relief flights were due to resume throughout Sudan on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the flight suspension, imposed on 8 August, had been lifted after the Secretary-General was reassured by President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan that "all measures" were being put in place to ensure the safety of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief personnel and aircraft. "The Secretary-General trusts that the Government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict will continue to fully honour their commitment to ensure the safety and security of relief workers," the spokesman told reporters in New York. He said the warring parties must also protect "the vulnerable populations whose urgent needs UN humanitarian personnel are trying to address throughout the country". 
The suspension was put into effect 8 August after a three week government bombing campaign which focused on the southern Bahr el-Ghazal region, and prompted WFP to evacuate its staff. Both the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) blame each other for breaking a humanitarian ceasefire and endangering relief operations and civilians. The government has called for a review of the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), and has accused non-OLS relief operations of humanitarian "violations", including assisting rebels. 

Ikotos town in eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, was bombed on Monday, according to the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Spokesman Kristen Flogstad told IRIN he confirmed by radio that one bomb was dropped in Ikotos, where the organisation has a relief base. Six bombs were also dropped on Monday on Palotaka, about 15 km from Parajok, eastern Equatoria, the spokesman added. Flogstad said it was the first time Ikotos, southeast of the regional capital Torit, had been bombed since last September. "It's a way of spreading terror", he said. During a bombing campaign last year, civilians fled to the nearby mountains and aid workers built bomb shelters, he told IRIN. 
Flogstad also said Ikotos "is not included in the promises given by the government of Sudan" relating to Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), as access by OLS had been banned. Ikotos is accessible only by road because it is a rebel-controlled area falling in a restricted no-flight zone, imposed by the government in November 1998. However, recent access by road has been "very problematic", Flogstad said. In January, eight people were killed in a road attack by the Ugandan rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), including two NCA staff members and six staff from other local churches. On 27 March, an NCA driver was killed in another road ambush. . 

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Front (SPLA) has said the movement will release nine prisoners of war in the rebel-held southern Blue Nile region, southeastern Sudan. The prisoners are being released on humanitarian grounds, a Sudanese opposition radio said on Tuesday. According to the report, the SPLA had contacted the Red Cross so that relatives and family members were informed, and transportation of the prisoners organised. SPLA leader Dr John Garang had order the release of the prisoners earlier in the week, the broadcast said. . 

The Egyptian authorities have seized over 1.5 tonnes of ivory smuggled from Sudan, constituting one of the largest seizures ever in the region, AFP reported on Tuesday. A statement from the Egyptian ministry of agriculture said that one Sudanese and two Egyptians were arrested on smuggling charges on Saturday and appeared before a military court on Sunday. Sudanese suspect Ali Hassan Abdul Rahman reportedly confessed to illegally entering Egypt for the purpose of selling ivory, after being caught trying to sneak back into Sudan. AFP said the Egyptian authorities were led to a home in southern Egypt and found 29 sacks containing 1,525 kg of uncut ivory. The court has deferred its ruling until 26 August to further investigate the evidence. The haul could be worth over US $1 million. . 

Heavy rains and strong winds in eastern Sudan have destroyed more than 20 homes, and caused at least one death. At least 50 trees had been uprooted by high winds in eastern al-Gedaref state, Reuters reported on Tuesday.  However, while heavy rains caused damage in the east, there has been no rainfall in the capital Khartoum. The prolonged drought in the Khartoum region prompted the government to ask people to pray for rain. . 

A tripartite summit will be held between Sudan, Eritrea and Qatar in New York in September, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il has announced. The minister said the meeting would attempt to end "tension"  between Khartoum and Asmara, the 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' Sudanese newspaper reported on Saturday. A press release jointly issued in Asmara, Doha and Khartoum said the Eritrean and Sudanese governments had committed themselves to "vigorously pursuing" an agreement concluded in Doha on 2 May 1999 which aimed to consolidate Eritrean-Sudanese relations. According to the press release, the presidents of Eritrea and Sudan would hold regular consultations and exchange visits "in the interests of peace and security".  Tension between Sudan and Eritrea followed accusations by the Sudanese government that Eritrea was supporting Sudanese rebels. Hamid Bin-Khalifah, the emir of Qatar, has played a key negotiating role between the two countries. 

The London-based human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has condemned the government bombing of civilians in southern Sudan as a violation of international humanitarian law. In a news release, Amnesty said the government should "immediately stop indiscriminate bombings of civilians in south Sudan" and restate its commitment to international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions. 

In a list of bombing attacks on the south, Amnesty said bombs were dropped by warplanes on civilian villages and community centres "despite an order by President Omar al-Bashir to his armed forces on 19 April 2000 to stop all air bombing operations, except in self-defence and during military operations". The order had followed an international outcry over bombings in February and March which hit hospitals and schoolchildren, Amnesty said. It added that the upsurge in the bombings coincided with the collapse of the Bahr el-Ghazal humanitarian ceasefire, when rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) forces captured Gogrial town, a key location in the province.  The ceasefire had been agreed between the government of Sudan, the SPLA and UN and relief agencies under the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) in order to provide food in an area where tens of thousands had died as a result of conflict-induced famine, the organisation said. 

Canada last week condemned the recent upsurge of conflict in Sudan. "The recent escalation of fighting by both parties as well as the bombing by government forces of humanitarian aid operations will only kill and displace more innocent Sudanese civilians," Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said in a statement. "The hindering of aid is in direct violation of international humanitarian law and the deliberate bombing of aid operations is even more offensive considering Sudan approved these aid agencies working in country,"  the country's International Cooperation Minister Maria Minna added. Both ministers noted with concern that the UN-led relief flights in southern Sudan had been temporarily suspended after government forces dropped 18 bombs on 7 August, near a base run by OLS in Mapel town, in Bahr el-Ghazal province. The Norwegian government also expressed "serious concern" over the humanitarian situation in the country. 

President Omar Bashir has written to President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya with regard to the ongoing peace initiative between the Sudanese government and southern rebels, Sudanese state media reported on Saturday. The letter was delivered by Social Planning Minister Dr Qutbi al-Mahdi Ahmad on Friday, who briefed Moi on the stalled peace talks, and complained that the rebel SPLA "continued to violate the humanitarian ceasefire" in Bahr el-Ghazal. The Sudanese government was "seriously prepared for the next round of peace talks and was fully committed to a ceasefire if the rebel movement also responded", he was quoted as saying.  Kenya is the sole base for external aid to southern Sudan, and allows the SPLA/M to have offices in the capital, Nairobi. Kenyan diplomats have taken a leading role in the peace initiative headed by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which aims to bring rebel and government representatives together in Nairobi sometime this month.

Deteriorating conditions in western Upper Nile, southern Sudan, are causing concern, humanitarian sources told IRIN. The government of Sudan has "consistently denied" access to western Upper Nile under the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), but church and non-OLS agencies have managed to bring in occasional aid and support. Inter-factional fighting between rebel movements has contributed to producing a large number of war-affected internally displaced civilians in the western Upper Nile region. Humanitarian agencies have also expressed concern about the number of displaced arrived in Bentui, Nuba Mountain region, as result of fighting.  The government of Sudan has said that 150 to 200 people per day were arriving in the Bentiu area as a result of fighting around the oilfields, with the total reaching some 40,000. Displacement by conflict has been exacerbated by the destruction of crops, burning of houses and "lawlessness"  by government-supported militia, humanitarian sources told IRIN. 

Sudanese police have expelled university students from the student union house in Khartoum, fearing demonstrations. The students held a general assembly meeting and formed an electoral committee, but were ejected by police from the meeting house on Friday, according to the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA). A police source was quoted as saying the university had vowed to form an activist committee, which was when the police moved in. No damage or injuries were reported during the incident, the police source said.

More than 34,000 war displaced people have arrived in the government-controlled towns of Bentiu and Rob Kona, El Ouahda region, since the beginning of July. The displaced are in an "alarming nutritional state"  and constitute a humanitarian crisis, according to a press release issued on Thursday by the New York-based NGO Action Against Hunger (AAH). Between 28-31 July alone, 19,000 displaced people, mainly women and children arrived within a 100 km radius around Bentiu. Bentiu is an oil producing, contested area in the Nuba mountains region. "Bentiu and Rob Kona are already facing a situation of critical food shortage, which is becoming catastrophic with this influx of displaced people", said AAH. The area is about 800 km south of Khartoum.  Displaced people were living in deplorable conditions in marshy areas and lacking shelter in heavy rains, the press release said. People and cattle were living together in a very small area, creating water and sanitation problems. "Tension is increasing due to lack of food and over-population", AAH said.  The NGO said it had launched an emergency relief programme in response to the crisis. Teams were preparing to open a therapeutic feeding centre in Bentiu, and several supplementary feeding centres in Bentiu and Rob Kona.

An estimated three million people in southern Sudan are facing severe food shortages because government bombings have forced relief agencies to suspend operations, the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) said at a press conference on Thursday. Elijah Majok, spokesman for the humanitarian wing of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, told journalists in Nairobi that the bombing campaign over the last month "has complicated an already complicated situation". He said the SRRA estimates about three million people will suffer the effects of drought and war, particularly in Bahr elGhazal province - the scene of a famine in 1998. 

Both the rebels and the Sudan government have traded accusations since fighting in southern Sudan intensified last month. The government launched a bombing campaign after the SPLA seized Gogrial in Bahr el-Ghazal.  Diplomatic sources told IRIN that the SPLA, for its part, had destroyed a key bridge that carried the railway line from northern Sudan into Wau, Bahr el-Ghazal, effectively besieging the regional capital. 

A statement issued by the Sudan government said it shared with the UN the concern about humanitarian operations in the south, and the continued violations of the ceasefire by rebels. The ministry of social planning statement, broadcast by state television, on Thursday said the government was saddened by the UN decision to "suspend the relief operation", because of the harm and suffering it would inflict on citizens as a result of the decision.  The Sudanese government appealed to the UN Secretary-General to quickly take steps to restore Operation Lifeline Sudan, a UN-led humanitarian consortium, "in accordance with the principles under which it was formed". It stressed its commitment "to delivering relief to its citizens by rail and road", and to securing ways of relief delivery. 

Meanwhile, the United States condemned the government of Sudan for bombing civilian and aid targets in southern Sudan. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday that the targeting of relief planes "endangers the international humanitarian relief effort and increases the risk of starvation for tens of thousands of Sudanese non-combatants", the German news agency DPA reported. The spokesman said the bombing campaign in the south included attacks on runways used to transport humanitarian supplies, and violated the government's 19 April pledge to stop targeting civilians. 

All relief operations under Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) have been suspended because of the recent government bombing campaign in the south, the office of the UN Secretary-General said in a statement released on Tuesday. "The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the security of humanitarian personnel and facilities belonging to Operation Lifeline Sudan...all OLS relief flights have been temporarily suspended, pending a security assessment," the statement said. The suspension of flights was decided after some 18 bombs were dropped on Monday "in the vicinity of UN-based facilities at Mapel", despite assurances by the government that bombings of the locations used by UN/OLS would not recur. The statement said the assurances followed earlier bombing incidents in late July that "threatened the safety of humanitarian personnel and relief aircraft".  The Secretary-General "calls upon both the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to reinforce as a matter of urgency the necessary measures to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and civilian beneficiaries throughout the country". The humanitarian ceasefire which expired in Bahr el Ghazal on 15 July should be reinstated, the statement said. 

Mapel, 60 km southeast of the Bahr el-Ghazal capital Wau, was bombed soon after a raid on neighbouring Tonj. Tonj marketplace was pounded, with at least six civilians reported killed, the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army said. 

A senior UN official told IRIN that there had been claims and counter-claims from the two sides over fighting in Bahr el-Ghazal, which were difficult to independently confirm. But the UN was "obviously very concerned about the effects of bombing on the civilian population", he said. 

In a joint statement, NGOs operating in southern Sudan condemned the bombing of civilians. It said 250 bombs had been dropped on civilian targets in July, in a government campaign that also targeted humanitarian agencies. "As well as causing casualties and deep trauma, the widespread bombing has destroyed homes, schools and churches," the statement said. Releasing a detailed list of 33 reported bombing incidents during July, the NGOs said civilians had been killed, injured, displaced from their homes, and had lost the opportunity to grow food. It said the targeting of  Sudanese citizens and the humanitarian agencies assisting them was a "direct violation of international law".

Also condemning the "specific targeting" of NGO compounds, planes, airstrips, clinics, humanitarian distribution points and other facilities, the statement said the action had undermined the level and quality of aid being delivered. The statement was signed by 13 organisations and individuals working outside Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a humanitarian consortium that operates under a negotiated agreement with the Sudanese government and the SPLA. 

Recent government criticism has focused on non-OLS NGOs. An NGO source told IRIN that some humanitarian agencies had felt it necessary to work outside the consortium because after 10 years, "it has failed to gain access to crucial areas needing relief", including the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile province and areas around the oil fields. But, the source said, there was concern within the NGO community that the government campaign against the non-OLS aid agencies was effectively "dividing" the humanitarian community and isolating independently-operating organisations, despite their recognised role. 

The SPLA/M issued a statement on Tuesday accusing the government of forcing aid agencies to leave southern Sudan under a sustained bombing campaign.  "The whole of Bahr el-Ghazal region, Western Upper Nile and Western Equatoria have specifically been singled out for extreme savagery," the statement said.  It added that the continued bombing of the civilian population and humanitarian aid organisations was aimed at "shutting down all humanitarian flights.. [and] is tantamount to the use of hunger and starvation of innocent civil population as an instrument of war". It urged the UN Security Council to impose a ban on government aircraft over southern Sudan. 

A statement released by the US Committee for Refugees condemned the US government for failing to speak out against the government bombing campaign in southern Sudan. It said in a statement released on Tuesday that the US government had been silent over the bombings because it was working towards increasing diplomatic relations with the Sudan government.

Executive director Roger Winter said in the statement that the air raids made a mockery of President Bill Clinton's promises to "respond seriously to African humanitarian issues". Winter said that the deliberate bombings had included attacks against US aid programmes and private international relief agencies. "The Clinton administration should act through the UN Security Council now to force an end to these escalating atrocities," he said. The aim appeared to be an effort by the Sudanese government to force international aid workers out of southern Sudan and shut down life-saving support to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese civilians, the statement said. 

A Sudanese government plane bombed two rebel-held towns on Monday in Bahr el-Ghazal, southern Sudan, killing and injuring civilians, according to the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). A Russian-made Antonov plane dropped more than 20 bombs on Tonj, killing 10 and wounding scores of people, SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN. A school and market place were hit in repeated raids by the plane, which then flew on to Mapel, also in Bahr el-Ghazal, he said. Humanitarian sources confirmed to IRIN that 18 bombs were dropped on Mapel, narrowly missing a stationary Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) plane and reportedly hitting a disused feeding centre.  The "seriousness" of the bombings was being looked at in the context of an ongoing government bombing campaign of humanitarian and civilian targets, the source said. 

Senior UN officials have condemned a pattern the bombings in Bahr el-Ghazal over the last three weeks. NGOs from the humanitarian OLS consortium said in a statement on Monday that there were at least 33 separate bombing incidents in July. But SPLA spokesman Kwaje expressed anger that the international humanitarian community had not taken more of a stand against the bombing campaign in Bahr el-Ghazal. "All this bombing has been going on and nothing serious is being said or done by the UN," he told IRIN. 

The NGO Medecins sans Frontieres (Belgium), which operates in Mapel, expressed shock over the bombing of the town, and said it made it extremely difficult for staff to work. Leen Verstraelen, a spokesperson in Nairobi, told IRIN that the bombing campaign in Bahr el-Ghazal put civilians and humanitarian staff in a dangerous situation. "We are extremely shocked and our volunteer staff are having problems dealing with this." She said MSF was in the process of seeking more details about the bombing, which reportedly hit a feeding centre in Mapel. No MSF structure was hit, but three bombs fell close to a feeding centre which had previously been used by the organisation. "If the feeding centre was hit, there would have been no children in it", she confirmed to IRIN. MSF Belgium is operating "as normal"  in locations in southern Sudan, including Ajep and Mapel, although MSF France was forced to pull out of northern Bahr el-Ghazal recently because of the bombing campaign, Verstraelen said. 

Meanwhile, the SPLA accused the Khartoum government of reneging on its support for a referendum to determine the future of the south, where rebels are fighting for self-determination. "The government of Sudan has no right to give or deny secession," spokesperson Samson Kwaje was quoted as saying by AFP on Monday. He was responding to a statement made to journalists in Khartoum on Saturday by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il who said the government "strongly opposes the secession of the southern part of the country and is determined to keep Sudan a united state". Kwaje said the foreign minister was speaking "in bad faith" as Khartoum had agreed on several occasions to the principle of holding a referendum on self-determination for the south, AFP reported. Various southern rebel movements have fought for secession since independence. 

A regional diplomat involved in the Sudan peace talks told IRIN there were difficulties with the "conceptualisation" of self-determination. Agreement on the principle of self-determination did not mean automatic secession, said the diplomat. However people in southern Sudan should be given the option of a referendum in a transitional period. Peace talks brokered by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) came to a standstill over the issue of self-determination last year, but the government had accepted it "as an option" this time, the diplomat added. 

Talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) will go ahead this month in Kenya, diplomatic sources told IRIN.  Dates for the meetings have not yet been confirmed. "Both sides have agreed to talk and come back to the negotiation table," the source said. 

Accusations and counter-accusations between the government and rebels over the last month have made the peace process fragile. The humanitarian ceasefire in the southern province of Bahr el-Ghazal has not been renewed officially by either side since it expired in July, when the government launched a bombing campaign in the south in the face of an intensified assault by the SPLA. Without monitoring, the humanitarian ceasefire was "a problem", said the source, as it was not binding and relied on both sides renewing it "from time to time". As a result, it threatened both humanitarian activities and the peace process. The Sudanese government had sought a comprehensive ceasefire, but the SPLA had insisted that a political agreement should be reached first, the source told IRIN. 

Non-governmental organisations, operating under the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), issued a statement on Monday condemning the government bombing campaign in southern Sudan, and reiterating the legality of their position. The statement was issued following accusations by the government of Sudan of NGO "violations", and the targeting of humanitarian aid compounds and planes in northern Bahr el Ghazal. 

"The specific targeting of NGO compounds and both OLS and ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] planes which have legally negotiated access to southern Sudan, has had a significant impact on the level and quality of aid being distributed and is in direct violation of international agreements", the statement said. It said there had been at least 33 separate bombing incidents in July. Claims by the Sudan government and Sudanese media that OLS agencies had airlifted and supplied arms to separatist rebels in the south "have not been substantiated and are refuted in the strongest possible terms", the statement said. "NGO members of the OLS consortium have a strong humanitarian philosophy that includes neutrality, impartiality and transparency." NGOs operating under the OLS consortium had committed themselves to joint agreements signed by the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "We fear that the recent aerial bombardment and stipulations of the Government of Sudan will only exacerbate further the fragile humanitarian condition of many in the south," the statement added. 

The government has begun investigations into the bombing of two UN aircraft operating for OLS, the Sudanese 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' newspaper reported on Friday. The newspaper referred to a bombing incident on "Wednesday", presumably 2 August, when two aircraft were attacked while in the air. The report said the UN aircraft escaped by flying higher, and the government "was not sure who carried out the bombing". The government's humanitarian aid coordinator, Sulaf al-Din Salih, confirmed in an interview with 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' that the authorities were investigating the incident. Humanitarian sources confirmed to IRIN that two OLS planes had received "near misses"  while stationary on the ground in northern Bahr el Ghazal over the last two weeks, but said there had been no reports of aircraft attacked in flight. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said in a newspaper interview that any aircraft bringing aid to Sudan must do so with the permission of the Sudanese government. He said there had been "many violations" committed by voluntary organisations refusing to operate under OLS, including voluntary organisations who "back the rebel movement with arms". He made the comments in an interview in Amman, Jordan, and published by the Jordanian newspaper 'Al-Arab al-Yawm' on Saturday. The accusations against humanitarian organisations come at a time when the Sudanese government and media, in the face of a heightened rebel offensive in Bahr el-Ghazal, are highly critical of humanitarian relief operations in the south, humanitarian sources told IRIN.

Confirming that the IMF had lifted a seven-year suspension of Sudan's voting rights, Sudanese Finance Minister Mohamed Khair al-Zubair said his country foreign debt totals US $20 billion. He told journalists on his return from Washington on Saturday that of this amount, Sudan owed US $1.6 billion to the IMF, AFP reported. said the minister. With the resumption of lending rights, the finance minister said he expected commercial, financial and economic institutions to deal again with Sudan after years of international isolation. "This IMF resolution testifies to the positive results of Sudan's economic management and to the country's sincerity towards repaying its debts," AFP quoted him as saying. Sudan had received 80 percent of the votes from the IMF's executive board, with Canada and the US voting against the move "for political reasons", he said. 

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il has alleged that Sudanese rebels were allied with Eritrea during the war against Ethiopia. In his interview with the Jordanian newspaper, 'Al-Arab al-Yawm', he claimed many Sudanese rebels had been detained by Ethiopia. Although Sudan was determined to maintain its cooperation with Eritrea, there was "intensive diplomacy with several Arab and African capitals in order to explain this situation". Sudan would not be able to have "normal relations of cooperation at a time when the rebel movement gets all the support it needs from Eritrea", he said. He claimed Eritrea had given Sudanese rebels arms, fuel and food, offices and a radio in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. If the current dialogue with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki failed, Sudan would be "responsible for protecting its land, security and citizens", the minister warned. 

The arrival on Monday of the Emir of Qatar in Asmara, Eritrea, signalled further efforts to salvage a fragile relationship between Eritrea and Sudan.  The Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, brokered a peace deal between Sudan and Eritrea in 1999, AFP reported, and this week he hoped to reactivate the accord signed in Doha in May 1999. His visit is aimed at normalising relations between Khartoum and Asmara, after Sudanese officials accused neighbouring Eritrea of backing Sudanese rebels in eastern Sudan. 

The Doha peace accord requires both countries to stop hosting and supporting the other's opposition groups, and to form joint teams to monitor their common border. Since the agreement, Eritrea established agreed-upon border crossing points, but failed to expel armed Sudanese opposition groups.  Journalists reported the presence of Sudanese rebels in western Eritrea in May, when the two year Eritrean-Ethiopian border war flared up again. The Eritrean government has denied any involvement in planning a rebel invasion of Sudan, or of a build-up of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) on the Eritrean border. Eritrea, for its part, protested that Sudan had facilitated Ethiopian troops in their invasion of western Eritrea in May and June. 

The Sudanese government on Monday cleared the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)  flight plan for August, including external flights from Lokichoggio, northern Kenya. UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain told IRIN on Tuesday that he welcomed the move. The OLS is a  consortium of many of the humanitarian organisations operating in Sudan, including UN agencies.  Mountain met senior government officials on Monday to discuss the breakdown of the humanitarian ceasefire in Bahr el Ghazal province, southern Sudan, and recent criticism of the OLS humanitarian operation in the Sudanese media. He told IRIN there was "full recognition of the impartiality and transparency of the operations of the UN agencies and NGOs under the consortium" within the government. 

Meanwhile, the non-governmental organisation Medecins sans frontiers (MSF)  said on Tuesday that an aerial bombing campaign by the Sudanese government had forced it to suspend its aid operations in part of northern Bahr el Ghazal province, in South Sudan. In a statement released in Paris, the NGO said it was "deeply concerned that its humanitarian aid and transport planes are becoming targets of bombardments". The statement warned there would be "extremely serious consequences for the civil population" if access to the area remained "impossible". 

The non-governmental organisation Médecins sans frontières (MSF) said on Tuesday that an aerial bombing campaign by the Sudanese government had forced it to suspend its aid operations in part of northern Bahr el Ghazal province, in South Sudan. In a statement released in Paris, the NGO said it was "deeply concerned that its humanitarian aid and transport planes are becoming targets of bombardments". The statement warned there would be "extremely serious consequences for the civil population" if access to the area remained "impossible". Government planes have bombed Akuem village, Billing, Malual Kon and Yangshiek since 27 July, MSF stated. In Akuem, on 28 July, three bombs "landed about 200 yards from the runway where an MSF plane was stationary". The same government aircraft returned 30 minutes later and dropped another three bombs "which landed 500 yards from the health centre [which was] clearly identifiable by a large MSF flag". Humanitarian aircraft were based in the villages of Billing, Malual Kon and Yangshied when they were bombed, the statement added.

Recently intensified fighting between the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and government forces had caused 1,300 people to flee to Akuem in recent weeks, MSF said. Before its evacuation, MSF ran a medical-nutritional programme in Akuem, assisting a population of some 20,000 and treating children suffering from severe malnutrition. Food insecurity was the "most serious problem in this region" and the only method to dispatch aid in southern Sudan was by air, the MSF statement said. The resurgence of hostilities "has caused population displacements in Bahr el Ghazal and the Western Upper Nile regions," it added. Last month, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) asked the Sudanese government to provide additional security guarantees , after a bombing attack in the same area damaged one of its planes and a clinic. 

The Sudanese government on Monday cleared the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)  flight plan for August, including external flights from Lokichoggio, northern Kenya. UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain told IRIN on Tuesday that he welcomed the move. The OLS is a consortium of many of the humanitarian organisations operating in Sudan, including UN agencies.  Mountain met senior government officials on Monday to discuss the breakdown of the humanitarian ceasefire in Bahr el Ghazal province, southern Sudan, and recent criticism of the OLS humanitarian operation in the Sudanese media. He told IRIN there was "full recognition of the impartiality and transparency of the operations of the UN agencies and NGOs under the consortium" within the government, but said he was very concerned about quotes attributed to him in the Sudanese media, in which he was alleged to have said that NGOs and rebels had violated relief agreements. "I do not recognise these quotes even from private meetings. OLS is operating within the approach of the tripartite agreement [between the OLS, Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A)] with transparency and impartiality," he said. 

Mountain said he had held numerous meetings at ministerial level over the breakdown of the ceasefire in Bahr el Ghazal, and was "very pleased to be assured of the importance placed on the continuation of OLS." He told IRIN that, with neither side officially extending the lapsed ceasefire, fighting on both sides had "serious consequences ... for the Sudan population and, most recently, for the safety of humanitarian workers." 

Contingency plans by health organisations are underway in northern Bahr el Ghazal because intensified fighting may cause large-scale displacement.  Plans by OLS health agencies began after the July military offensive by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) - in which it took control of the town of Gogrial in northern Bahr el Ghazal - and the government's response in bombing surrounding areas. A July report by WHO said the SPLA advance on Aweil, the northern point of the railhead that forms the key supply route for the government stronghold of Wau, could threaten the evacuation of some 150,000 people from both towns. Aerial bombardment alone was unlikely to cause large population movements, as the population was used to it, and many compounds had rudimentary bomb shelters, it said. The number of civilians displaced could be greater than 150,000 depending on the movement of a government train carrying troops between Aweil and Wau, as it was often accompanied by horseback militia who rampaged through track-side villages, the WHO report said. 

Such displacement "crowds people in poor conditions, provides favourable conditions for fast-spreading outbreaks" the report quoted WHO official Dr Ayana Yeneabat as saying. "What we could have is an acute emergency in a chronic emergency situation," said Yeneabat, WHO officer in charge at the OLS logistical base in Lokichoggio. More than 75 percent of illness and death in South Sudan is related to infectious disease, even with recent improvements in early warning, according to WHO statistics. The OLS health agencies are trying to establish the resources that each organisation has in the area affected by the renewed fighting in order to improve their responsiveness in the event of significant population movements. 

The NGO CONCERN said on Monday it had evacuated its staff from the town of Nyamlell in southern Sudan's Aweil west district, Bahr el Ghazal province, after its compound was hit in an air attack on Saturday. A CONCERN spokesman told IRIN no-one was reported hurt in the attack, during which 24 bombs were dropped by an aircraft which made four passes over the town. Two bombs fell on the CONCERN compound, and the evacuated staff were described as "very shaken". Humanitarian sources told IRIN that civilians in the area had "scattered" after the heavy bombing raid. 

The government of Sudan said at the weekend that humanitarian aid going to an estimated 1.7 million war and famine victims in southern Sudan through the international Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief effort should not fall into the hands of the rebel SPLA/M. "We will not allow OLS to be used for the provision of assistance to the rebels," news organisations quoted President Omar al-Bashir as saying. The official SUNA news agency quoted government spokesman, Ghazi Salah-Eddin, as reaffirming "the government's total commitment to the delivery of relief to affected and needy people in all parts of the country". It said all routes and ports in the country were open "for all organisations and societies". However, it added: "The government of Sudan would not allow relief facilities to be used for the passage of any supplies that would fan the war and fighting and it would supervise this matter firmly and meticulously." 

The Sudan government had recently established a higher council on children and created a commission to investigate reports of the kidnapping of children in the country, the UN Security Council was told. But Sudanese representative, Mubarak Hussein Rahmtalla, accused humanitarian NGOs working in Sudan of "flagrant violations" of international law. 
In a special debate on children and armed conflict, led by Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, the Council heard country representatives speak of national measures taken to protect war-affected children. Rahmtalla said armed groups in Africa were directly responsible for violations of the rights of the child and that the actions of those groups should be condemned. He said a distinction should be drawn between the activities of states and those of armed groups. He said there was "proof" that "several NGO's" working in the area of humanitarian assistance in Sudan were "committing flagrant violations of international law and of the United Nations Charter". The remarks were transcribed in a report issued after the debate on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government decided on Tuesday to introduce new measures for relief and humanitarian operations in Sudan. The government will implement "several special measures to correct the overall course of relief and humanitarian operations in Sudan", 'Al-Ra'y al-Am' newspaper reported. All international organisations and donor countries would be contacted by the government "with a view to discussing the violations and lack of commitment to the agreed upon conventions governing humanitarian operations which have had the negative effects of prolonging the war and undermining confidence in humanitarian operations in Sudan", said the report, monitored by the BBC. 
The meeting was chaired by first vice-president, Ali Uthman Muhamed Taha, and was attended by ministers of defence, internal affairs, social planning, the minister of state for external relations, and the presidential adviser for security affairs. 

The Sudanese government has said that peace talks with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA/M) under the auspices of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have been postponed. 
A report in the daily, 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' on Wednesday quoted Eng Muhammad Atta, the secretary-general for peace affairs, as saying the talks would not be held as scheduled on Monday, 31 July in Nairobi because "the IGAD secretariat and the outlaw's movement aimed at preparing an atmosphere for dialogue had failed". It said the talks had now been tentatively postponed to August.
The SPLM/A, however, counter-charged that it was the government which was dragging its heels so as "to avoid the solution of the conflict". A statement signed by Samson Kwaje, the movement's official spokesman, on Thursday, accused Khartoum of "bad faith" in its approach to talks on ending the 17-year war. 

Meanwhile, in a statement to AFP, the SPLM/A office in Eritrea accused government forces of killing dozens of people in the oil-producing southern regions of Sudan when they overran the town of Nayal Dio on Friday last week. 
"The cold-blooded slaughter in Nayal Dio is a continuation of the government's policy of burnt land and ethnic cleansing which has seen hundreds of villages burnt and their inhabitants killed or left homeless," the statement said. The statement, which was not independently verified, accused the government of seeking to ensure its ability to pump oil in the area. 

Finance and National Economy Minister Mohammed Khayr al-Zubayr was visiting Washington this week for talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on restoring Sudan's the membership of the IMF, the state news agency Suna reported on Thursday. 
Khayr al-Zubayr said an IMF delegation that visited Sudan recently had proposed remedies for Sudan's debt under the "poor countries debt settlement" scheme, said a report monitored by the BBC. The IMF and the Sudan agreed in March last year on a medium-term economic reform programme that would cover the period 1999-2000, with a view to achieving a positive rate of growth of six percent of the GNP, and to lower the rate of inflation by 5 percent by the end of 2000. It said the international lending agency had agreed to lower the monthly instalments paid by Sudan by 40 percent and was considering offering technical assistance. 

The rebel movement in Sudan said on Tuesday it is still observing a ceasefire with government forces, which expired on 15 July. Samson Kwaje, spokesman for Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Nairobi, told IRIN: "Both the SPLA and the government have not said the ceasefire is dead. As far as we are concerned, we are respecting the ceasefire and allowing the NGOs and Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) continue their humanitarian mission." 
Reacting to repeated government allegations that SPLA forces had violated the ceasefire in the southern Sudan's Bar el Ghazal province, Kwaje said it was government "provocation" which had led to SPLA counter-attacks, resulting in the SPLA capture on 24 June of Gogrial, Bahr el Ghazal province. 
Kwaje accused the government of launching two air attacks in Bahr el Ghazal, on Saturday 22 July and Saturday 15 July in which bombs were dropped on humanitarian targets from government-owned Soviet-era Antonov aircraft. Both attacks have been independently confirmed by humanitarian organisations. 
"Obviously, we had nothing to do with this because our organisation does not operate any aircraft, and it is no secret that these were government aircraft which conducted the attacks," Kwaje said. "We urge the international community not only to condemn such attacks, but also to press the government not to carry out its warnings that it might ban the OLS humanitarian flights." The government had said at the weekend that relief should not be used to fan conflict, but denied that it had threatened to ban the OLS humanitarian operation. 
In response to government overtures for peace talks, he underlined the readiness of the SPLA to meet under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). 

The Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Tuesday denied accusations by the government that it was receiving military support from neighbouring Eritrea in the Kassala district of eastern Sudan. 
"We unequivocally deny allegations of such assistance, and of alleged SPLA military presence in Eritrea for such operations," said Samson Kwaje. But the spokesperson admitted that it was "a well known fact" that the SPLA had maintained "a small office..in Asmara (Eritrean capital) as well as one in Cairo (Egypt) since 1996-97". He said it was maintained in conjunction with the northern Sudanese opposition, the National Democratic Alliance. 
According to London-based Horn of Africa expert, Patrick Gilks, "Ethiopia has won the contest for getting closer to Sudan, by kicking out the Sudanese opposition, which Eritrea appears not to be prepared to do". Since the Ethiopia-Eritrea war broke out in 1998, both countries made an effort to improve relations with neighbouring Sudan - which had seriously deteriorated in 1994 over accusations of Sudan's regional Islamification policy and state-sponsored terrorism. Gilks told IRIN that Sudan was "probably not convinced of Eritrea's goodwill". But he said, recent accusations by the Sudan government of Eritrean troops assisting Sudan rebels was more likely to have arisen from "Eritrean troops trying to close off infiltration (by Ethiopian-supported Eritrean opposition groups) along the border" rather than active military assistance on Sudan territory.

The NGO CONCERN said on Monday it had evacuated its staff from the town of Nyamlell in southern Sudan's Aweil west district, Bahr el Ghazal province, after its compound was hit in an air attack on Saturday. A CONCERN spokesman told IRIN no-one was reported hurt in the attack, during which 24 bombs were dropped by an aircraft which made four passes over the town. Two bombs fell on the CONCERN compound, and the evacuated staff were described as "very shaken". Humanitarian sources told IRIN that civilians in the area had "scattered" after the heavy bombing raid. 
The agency, which sent its acting country director, Siobhan McGee, to investigate the bombings, said the bombs also fell near the compound of the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA) and the offices of the local commissioner. A WFP team in the area was also evacuated, confirmed a WFP spokesperson. 
A week earlier, a clinic run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was damaged, several homes destroyed and at least one person was wounded in a bombing raid in the tense southwest region of Bahr el Ghazal. 

President Omar al-Bashir has ordered that training camps be opened in all states of Sudan to beef up defence. He announced the decision at a mobilisation meeting called by the Popular Defence Forces' command at the Republican Palace, Khartoum, 22 July, reported state media. He ordered the formation of a national committee for mobilisation to be chaired by the first vice-president and three alternate chairman, including the minister of national defence, and the minister of the council of ministers. The committee would also include representatives from political parties and private and public bodies. 
The mandate of the committee included raising cash and resources for the war effort, general mobilisation, and support to the army. Support would also be given to government militia, named as "the Popular Defence Forces and other organised forces and mujahidin". Other duties of the committee were to "appoint caretakers for the fighters' families and relatives" and to brief "friendly countries as well as regional and international communities" on rebel violations. According to the report, run on state television and radio, the first meeting would be held at the general-secretariat of the Council of Ministers on 24 July. 

The government of Sudan said at the weekend that humanitarian aid going to an estimated 1.7 million war and famine victims in southern Sudan through the international Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief effort should not fall in the hands of the SPLA/M. 
"We will not allow OLS to be used for the provision of assistance to the rebels," President Omar al-Bashir, was quoted as saying in weekend news reports. Although he has suspended OLS operations in the past, a government spokesman later clarified its "full commitment" to the relief operation. The official SUNA news agency, in a dispatch at the weekend quoted government spokesman, Ghazi Salah-Eddin, the information minister, as reaffirming "the government's total commitment to the delivery of relief to affected and needy people in all parts of the country, and that the government is committed to providing them with food." 
It said all routes and ports in the country were open "for all organisations and societies". However, it added: "The government of Sudan would not allow relief facilities to be used for the passage of any supplies that would fan the war and fighting and it would supervise this matter firmly and meticulously." UN sources told IRIN that the UN had written to the government of Sudan over the presidents' comments on Sunday, as they had "far reaching implications" for OLS. But the clarification meant that operations would continue "as normal". 
Meanwhile, a government statement issued on Saturday said peace talks organised by the regional body Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought (IGAD) should concentrate on violations of the ceasefire by the SPLA. In the statement, presidential adviser Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir said the government had underlined the need to focus on rebel violations during the recent visit of Ambassador Daniel Mboya, Kenya's presidential envoy for IGAD. 

Military escalation in the southern Bahr el Ghazal district of Sudan was putting stress on the coming round of peace talks sponsored by Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Sudan's 'Al Sahafi' and 'Al Dawli' newspapers said on Wednesday. An IGAD meeting with officials of Sudan's Peace Advisory Committee, there was no agreement on a new date for the talks. 

Sudanese women are set to have a greater say in peace negotiations, following the creation of a Women's Desk at the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for Sudan, according to a Catholic publication this week. 

The Sudan Month Report, published by the Sudan Catholic Information Office, in Nairobi, Kenya, said the creation of the desk reflected the need to strengthen the participation of women in all peace initiatives in Sudan..  The initiative was announced after a Sudan Womens' Advocacy Mission last month visited New York and Washington DC, and received the USA's National Peace Foundation prize for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Sudanese conflict. The mission comprised six women, led by Amira Yosif representing the Muslim north, and Rebecca Okwaci from predominantly Christian southern Sudan. 

It said that until last year, the IGAD process consisted of brief meetings held twice a year between the Khartoum government and the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Following the establishment of a secretariat in Nairobi last year, the meetings turned into an "on-going process rather than a series of sporadic meetings", it said. . 

A Sudanese torture victims group told a British parliamentary committee this week that human rights in Sudan were endangered by the country's state of emergency. The coordinator of the Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (STVG), Osman Hummaida, said: "There is an increased danger to Sudanese people, since any protection by laws has been removed and the state of emergency will allow the Sudanese security forces to act with total impunity".

In a press release, he called on the government to immediately lift the state of emergency, and "cease all forms of intimidation, harassment, and detention of students". Hummaida said the government of Sudan had made only "modest concessions" on human rights. These included a declaration of  general amnesty, partial closure of some "secret detention centres", and the release a group of political prisoners and detainees. The government had also become involved in negotiations and peace talks with opposition parties, he said. But he stressed that these concessions were a result of internal and international pressure "combined with the desire of the government to break the isolation and to legitimise its position". He said the concessions did not represent a fundamental change in attitude on the part of the government. 

A clinic run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was damaged, several homes destroyed and at least one person wounded on Saturday when an "unidentified aircraft" bombed a village in the tense southwest region of Bahr el Ghazal, an ICRC spokesman told IRIN on Tuesday.  The ICRC said it planned to raise the issue with the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The attack occurred on Saturday morning at the village of Chelkou where 14 bombs were dropped. 

"Three of them were dropped at the local airstrip and shrapnel penetrated the tailplane of the ICRC aircraft," Juan Martinez said. "It was nevertheless able to depart for Lokichokio in northern Kenya with three of our delegates who have been temporarily withdrawn." He said ICRC, which operates in both government and rebel-controlled territory throughout southern Sudan, wanted to find out the reason for the attack. 

The bombing occurred the day after a three-month ceasefire in Bahr el Ghazal ended. The government of Sudan and southern rebels at weekend blamed each other for a series of ceasefire violations in the region where a cessation of hostilities had been called in April to enable the delivery of humanitarian relief. Although Khartoum said it would still respect the ceasefire, the Sudanese External Relations Ministry said it reserved the right to "repulse aggression". 

In a statement on the attack, issued on Monday, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) said it had learnt from "reliable sources" that the aircraft in question was a Soviet-era Antonov operated by the government of Sudan. 

"The bombing of the ICRC's medical facility in Chelkou comes in the context of a three-week bombing campaign by the government of Sudan in the northern district of Bahr el Ghazal," CSI said in a statement. "Within the past 12 months, the government of Sudan also bombed and severely damaged a field hospital run by Franklin Graham's Samaritan Purse organisation and a Catholic school run by Sudanese Bishop Macram Gassis." 

The CSI urged UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "to insist upon an immediate cessation of the government of Sudan's current deliberate bombing campaign of civilian targets, which include humanitarian aid facilities and medical clinics," the statement said. 

Meanwhile, the government said on Monday it had ordered a heightened state of readiness to meet security challenges in the south of the country, state media reported on Tuesday. The new state of alert was ordered after the government had evaluated rebel attacks in Bahr el Ghazal. 

The decision, which included placing the armed forces on the highest state of alert, came days after the SPLA claimed in a statement that it had killed 92 government soldiers in recent attacks and made new gains. A Sudanese television broadcast also said the government had resolved to step up mobilisation of people employed in all government, private, business and institutional sectors. 

A meeting is to be held in Kassala state, eastern Sudan, next week to review implementation of the tripartite agreement between THE Sudan government, representatives of the Refugees Commission, the Eritrean government and UNHCR, the official news agency Suna said. The meeting follows the signing of the tripartite agreement signed in Asmara, Eritrea, on 15 July, regarding the voluntary repatriation of Eritrean refugees. According to the Suna report, monitored by the BBC, the number of refugees who entered Sudan in the wake of the Ethiopian-Eritrean war has exceeded 90,000. 

Sudan's Kassala State Governor Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid has accused Eritrea of helping Sudanese rebels plan an offensive in eastern Sudan, AFP reported. An independent newspaper, As-Sahafi ad-Dawli, quoted Hamid accusing Eritrea of "planning and carrying out military operations for the rebel movement", the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). The daily further cited unnamed sources as saying that SPLA forces, reinforced by Eritrean tanks and long-range artillery, were seen on the Eritrean side of the border ready to launch an offensive on eastern Sudan. The sources told the daily that Eritrea had become hostile toward Sudan because it believed that the Sudanese government had offered Ethiopian troops access to western Eritrea through Sudanese territory during the war. 

Eritrean presidential spokesperson Yemane Gebremeskel denied that Eritrea was hosting or facilitating Sudanese rebels. "The rebels are in eastern Sudan, what they do is out of our control" he told IRIN.  He confirmed there had been complaints by the Eritrean government regarding Sudanese facilitation of Ethiopian troops during the most recent conflict, but said it was "long forgotten". "There were talks with the embassy and they were given the details, but it is no big deal", he said. 

According to Yemane, a Sudanese delegation had attended a tripartite meeting in Asmara on Friday to discuss the return of at least 70,000 Eritrean refugees presently in eastern Sudan as a result of the recent conflict with Ethiopia. He told IRIN that the accusations of Eritrea aiding rebels "came as a surprise....and must be some hidden agenda connected with the return of the refugees". 

UNICEF cites progress on child soldiers 

The Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has pledged to end the recruitment of soldiers under the age of 18, and to demobilise its remaining child soldiers. The pledge followed a three-day workshop in Rumbek, southern Sudan, last week. "The movement's humanitarian wing, the SRRA [Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association], committed to intensify efforts to register, reunify and reintegrate all demobilised child soldiers," UNICEF stated in a press release on Friday. It added that NGOs and UNICEF itself had agreed to increase funding for demobilisation, rehabilitation, services designed to promote reintegration and the prevention of recruitment. "Former child soldiers vowed not to rejoin the military, but remain school children and stick to education and play," it said. "Parents said they would seek to support teachers' salaries and improve food security. Teachers will focus on increasing school attendance and accommodating vulnerable children in school. Traditional chiefs pledged to follow up on demobilised child soldiers and to help rebuild community infrastructure. Spiritual leaders will include the issue of child recruitment in prayers and religious teachings," it added. 

Sudanese External Affairs Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has said he would be meeting Susan Rice, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, next month at the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the strained relations between the two countries. The official SUNA news agency quoted Ismail as saying it was "premature to speak now on full normalisation of Sudanese-American relations". He told the agency that Khartoum believed the US was "not neutral as regards the country's issues", and that Sudan awaited "practical steps" by Washington "to prove its impartiality".

Former prime minister and leader of the northern opposition party Umma, Sadiq al-Mahdi, said he is now able to return to Khartoum, though it was up to the party to decide when that should be. In a report by the Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' on 12 July Sadiq al-Mahdi said he had "no qualms"  about returning. He said he had been delayed in returning to Sudan because of his efforts to "remove obstacles hindering a comprehensive political solution and to rally regional and international support." He said relations between Egypt and Sudan should be discussed in the peace talks, and special consideration should be given to relations with neighbouring countries. 

Sadiq al-Mahdi and the northern opposition parties were persuaded to join comprehensive political talks by Eygpt, under a joint Egypt-Libya initiative. The Umma party has traditional ties with Egypt which date back to independence. 

The Malaysian state oil company, Petronas, has been awarded a 40 percent stake in an oil exploitation project in southern Sudan, news reports said on Thursday. 

"The Sudanese government will hold a bigger share in this project, at least 15 percent, compared to its 5 percent equity in previous ventures, and the rest will be allocated to European companies," Sudan's energy minister, Hassan Mohamad Ali, was quoted as saying. The reports recalled that Petronas was also held a 30 percent stake in the Great Nile Petroleum Operating Company. . 

New round of peace talks 
The regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has said it will help arrange a fresh round of peace talks in Nairobi next month between the Sudan government and southern and northern-based opposition groups, including the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. 
According to AFP, Daniel Mboya of IGAD would discuss the issue with Sudanese authorities in the capital, Khartoum, in coming days. Sudan's official media said Mboya, a Kenyan, would discuss a timetable and an agenda. In Washington, a state department spokesman said the IGAD peace initiative "offers the best hope for ending the violence in Sudan". "Peace cannot be achieved if the two initiatives work separately or at odds with each other", he said referring to the peace efforts of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The SPLA works in alliance with the NDA in eastern Sudan. 
Meanwhile, NDA said it welcomed a joint initiative by Sudan's northern neighbours, Egypt and Libya, aimed at seeking national reconciliation. A brief dispatch by the MENA news agency of Egypt quoted an NDA statement as saying it would welcome an Egyptian initiative to arrange talks with the government in Cairo or Tripoli. It also appealed to the leader of the Umma party to rejoin the alliance. 
Patrick Gilkes, Horn of Africa expert, told IRIN that there had been a lot of effort over the last year to strengthen and combine the two peace initiatives, with Egypt focusing on bringing in northern opposition parties. A previous initiative by IGAD had faltered more than a year ago when it declared self-determination an option for Southern Sudan. According to Gilkes, Egypt - which is not a member of IGAD but a "friend" - was "unhappy" with the prospect. .

President Omar el-Bashir was unable to attend the OAU summit in Togo, as planned, because of a "minor illness", news agencies reported. Bashir underwent a minor surgical operation when a cyst was removed, said a report on Kenyan radio. Quoting an anonymous source "close to the presidential palace", the Kenyan report said the operation was performed in a Khartoum hospital, and Bashir returned home the same day. The Sudanese delegation will be lead by the foreign minister, who is already in the Togolese capital, Lome. 

Thousands of civilians are reportedly deserting Wau, the capital of Bahr el Ghazal region in southern Sudan. Catholic bishop Caesar Mazzolari, from Rumbek Diocese, said in Nairobi on Thursday that panic had been triggered by fears of a possible attack on Wau by the rebel Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA captured Gogrial town, about 100 km north of Wau, last week, provoking aerial bombardment by the government of rebel-held areas.  According to information released by the Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO) in Nairobi, the exodus has been "gradual" because movements are restricted by the government. SCIO said at least 70,000 people have been affected, but this has not been confirmed by any other humanitarian source.  Wau - a crossroads for north and south - has long been sandwiched between government and rebel-held territory, and was taken briefly by the SPLA in 1998, triggering events that led to the Bahr el Ghazal famine. Charles Omondi of the Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO) told IRIN that the recent movement of people had come at a time when people were supposed to be preparing their farms, and would have long-term implications for food availability in the area. The information was released after Bishop Mazzolari visited the area and met with local leaders and aid workers.

Malnutrition rates in Upper Nile are "alarming", with people "in dire need of assistance", the health NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) warned on Thursday. The results of a nutritional survey conducted in June in Padeah District, Western Upper Nile, showed severely malnourished children in a four villages, an MSF press release stated. Overall, the investigation revealed a global malnutrition rate of 23.3 percent and a severe malnutrition rate of 5.2 percent in a district with an estimated population of 40,000 people. Marilyn McHarg, Head of Mission southern Sudan, said there was "an urgent need" to address the general food situation in Padeah, where recent armed conflict had displaced "almost 75 percent of the population".  According to the MSF statement some 95 percent of the population had also reported cattle losses due to conflict. Cattle are the main source of trade and livelihood in the district. There has been virtually no NGO presence in the area since June 1998, and the airstrip urgently needed rehabilitation, the statement added. The area is very isolated, located between the Nile, swamps and major tributaries. MSF said it was "ready to start blanket feeding in Padeah District in response to the malnutrition" but recommended a distribution of "adequate general food rations" before an intensive feeding programme was established.

An official from the OAU refugees committee visited Kassala, eastern Sudan, on Thursday, having arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday, to acquaint himself with the conditions of the refugees in camps there. Meanwhile, meetings of a joint committee for the voluntary repatriation of the Eritrean refugees - comprising the UNHCR, Eritrean government and refugee representatives - would start meeting on Saturday 15 July, the official Suna news agency reported. WFP has been providing food for 94,000 Eritreans who fled to Sudan during the recent conflict, a UN press release stated on Thursday. When these refugees start returning home, "they will need food to get them through the hardship of repatriation, reintegration and resettlement, particularly as their homes are not likely to be intact," WFP added. The agency said it would soon need additional resources to feed the refugees through to mid-December.

Planed voluntary repatriation of more than 100,000 long-term Eritrean refugees - who fled during the pre-independence war - had to be suspended when the border conflict resumed. The border war increased the number of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, and also made it difficult to repatriate to eastern Eritrea - where the majority of the pre-independence war refugees were from - because of an Ethiopian occupation of the major regional town of Barentu.

In a statement issued on 29 June, representatives of the international humanitarian community at the joint donors meeting of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) urged the parties involved in the Sudanese conflict to keep to mutual agreements and declared humanitarian ceasefires, and to work with the humanitarian community to achieve unimpeded deliveries of humanitarian assistance. It also called on the parties to ensure the protection of civilian populations at all times. The statement came amid growing international concern over the resumption of fighting in Bhar el-Ghazal region after a ceasefire of several months, and fresh reports of government bombings of towns and villages in Bahr el-Ghazal and Lakes regions. 

The FAO on Monday announced a 10-year strategy to deal with poverty and famines in the Horn of Africa. The strategy on food security, agricultural development and related issues was aimed at Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, a press release from the agency stated. The long-term goal was to free the countries from dependence on external assistance and to restore people's basic human rights, especially the right to food, it said. "Governments and donors need to reassess their approach to addressing absolute poverty and food insecurity by providing more resources and targeting their assistance to the poorest communities, especially those living in the most neglected parts of the region," the FAO report added. 

A Sudanese government Antonov dropped bombs on the town of Rumbek in Bahr el Ghazal region on Sunday, hitting the central market place and killing at least two civilians, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. They said several more people were injured in the raid. Sudan Focal Point quoted independent observers as saying that similar raids were carried out on the village of Cueibet, northwest of Rumbek, and the villages of Liethnom and Lunyaker (all of them in Bahr el-Ghazal) the same day, causing injuries and damage to houses, but no deaths. Sudan Focal Point said it was clear that the government had resumed its policy of aerial bombardment of civilian targets. The raids follow the breakdown of a ceasefire in the region last month and the capture by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of the garrison town of Gogrial, 220 km northwest of Rumbek. Each side has blamed the other for the resumption of hostilities. 

The European Union presidency issued a declaration on Saturday expressing its grave concern regarding the offensive by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the Bahr el Ghazal region. It called on both sides to respect ceasefire commitments and expressed the hope that "a global and unlimited ceasefire may be proclaimed by the parties as soon as possible".  The declaration noted the SPLM/A statement of 19 June announcing its return to the regional IGAD peace talks and called on both sides to resume peace negotiations rapidly. The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A have each blamed the other for last month's breakdown of the Bahr el Ghazal ceasefire, which had held more or less intact for several months. 

Sudanese armed forces spokesman Gneral Mohammed Osman Yassin was reported as saying on Saturday that Sudan would be self-sufficient in light, medium and heavy wepons by the end on this year. The general, who was quoted by the 'Al-Share al-Syasi' newspaper, said Sudan was now manufacturing its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, mortars and ammunition. He said Sudan had embarked on the military industrial project during its "unprecedented economic boom, particularly in the field of oil exploration and export". 

President Omar al-Bashir met visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, in Khartoum on Friday to discuss bilateral matters and the Horn of Africa. The Sudanese news agency (SUNA) said they had similar viewpoints on bilateral, regional and economic issues. The two sides praised what they called the positive outcome of meetings between the governors of Sudanese states and Ethiopian regions on the border between the two countries and agreed on a further meeting of the governors in Bahar Dar, Ethiopia. SUNA reported on Saturday that Bahsir had also received an Eritrean delegation, in Khartoum for celebrations to mark the 11th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power. It said he "commended Sudanese-Eritrean relations in all spheres".

President Omar al-Bashir called on Thursday for a national reconciliation conference to end Sudan's civil war. In a speech to mark the 11th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power, Bashir said preparations would begin next month for the convening of such a conference. He said the Sudan government would continue to work through the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) talks and through the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative "to achieve a just, peaceful solution which meets the demands of the southerners for a just participation in power and distribution of resources", the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. The realisation of peace in the country would, he said, remain the first objective of the government. Bashir pledged to set up a development and rehabilitation fund with resources from oil revenues, supported by the federal government and regional and international bodies, to rebuild war-damaged parts of the country and consolidate peace and development. 

At least three-hundred government soldiers were killed last Saturday in the town of Gogrial (South Sudan, region of Bahr al Ghazal) in an attack carried out by the rebels of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army). The news, referred by our independent MISNA sources, was confirmed yesterday by SPLA spokesman Yasser Armane. Who assured that SPLA “is still respecting the humanitarian “cease-fire” in the Bahr al Ghazal region”, extended until the 15th of July. According to information received by the MISNA, over the last few days the troops of Khartoum have repeatedly attacked rebel positions and the devastated civil population. Sudan’s civil war, begun in 1983, has claimed around 2-million lives, caused one-million people to flee the country and displacing another 6-million. The numbers are dramatic, particularly given to the cynical disinterest of the international community. Despite the request, made by the missionary and co-operation world, for an arms embargo on the sides in conflict, the use of weapons has become common in South Sudan. “It is more difficult to buy a handful of bullets than a little food”, declared to the MISNA Monsignor Cesare Mazzolari, Bishop of Rumbek. 

Hassan al-Turabi, the former parliamentary speaker and ex-secretary general of Sudan's ruling National Congress (NC) party, announced the launching of a new political party on Tuesday, the Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported.  Turabi told a press conference at his Khartoum residence that the new party, the People's National Congress, would be a "comprehensive shura organisation", indicating that it would be outside the government. He accused President Omar al-Bashir of betraying the NC's Islamist tenets and said two cabinet ministers were defecting with him, according to Agence France Presse (AFP).  Turabi, a former close ally of Bashir, was dismissed as parliamentary speaker last December after a power struggle between the two men. Bashir moved further to consolidate his position in May, when he suspended Turabi from the NC. The dismissal was confirmed at a meeting of the NC Consultative Council on Monday.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) announced on Monday that its forces had captured the garrison town of Gogrial in Bahr el-Ghazal province.  Spokesman Samson Kwaje said the town was taken on 24 June and that government forces were fleeing in disarray towards Wau and Aweil, which he said were the only major towns controlled by the government in the region.  Aid workers last week confirmed fighting between the two sides near Gogrial, where a ceasefire had been in effect for several months. Kwaje reiterated the SPLA's commitment to the ceasefire and said that the action in Gogrial had been forced on the SPLA by attacks on their positions and raids on the civilian population by government troops. He gave no details of casualties on either side. There has been no comment from Khartoum on the SPLA claim. 

A spokesman for Oxfam confirmed on Wednesday that the organisation would be resuming operations in southern Sudan. He told IRIN that Oxfam had not yet signed the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) Memorandum of Understanding - which outlines conditions for aid agencies to work in rebel-held areas - but that it anticipated doing so. He said that Oxfam was co-coordinating its move with other agencies, including Save the Children Fund (SCF). A statement issued by Care International also announced the resumption of operations. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje announced on Monday that four international agencies - Oxfam, SCF, Care International and the German and Belgian branches of Veterinaires sans Frontieres (VSF) had agreed to return to southern Sudan after signing the Memorandum of Understanding.  Humanitarian sources said the agencies had received assurances of co-operation by the rebels' humanitarian arm, the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA). A number of international agencies suspended operations in southern Sudan earlier this year, after refusing to sign the Memorandum, saying that it was too restrictive. They also objected to financial stipulations and a clause requiring them to leave behind project assets in the event of an "interruption" of activities, which the SRRA reserved the right to order.

At the request of the United States, the UN Security Council has delayed a decision on lifting sanctions against the Sudan until mid-November, after the US presidential elections, diplomats reported. All other 14 council members believe the Sudan has fulfilled the requirements to end the embargoes, imposed after Khartoum was accused of harbouring suspects in a 1995 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while he was attending a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But a vote at this stage would draw a US veto in the 15- member body, prompting council members to agree to the postponement in the expectation the Clinton administration would change its position, the envoys said on 28 June. Sudan for months has lined up international backing for lifting the sanctions, including Egypt, on whose behalf they were imposed, and Ethiopia, where the attack took place. France's ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, this month's council president, said that Sudan, during talks with the US diplomats at the United Nations, had agreed to the delay. "This agreement was registered and endorsed by the members of the Security Council without further discussion," he said. The sanctions, which went into force in May 1996, require all states to reduce the number of Sudanese diplomatic personnel on their territory and to restrict the entry or transit of Sudanese government officials. The council then decided in August 1996 to impose bans on flights by Sudanese aircraft. But those measures did not go into effect because the council did not adopt a follow-up resolution setting a date for their entry into force. However, for Sudan the sanctions are symbolic and might prevent their vying for one of 10 rotating non permanent Security Council seats next year, a move diplomats say the United States is working hard to prevent by encouraging Mauritius to run instead as an African candidate. The 189-member General Assembly votes in October. In the interim, the United States has sent a team of security and counter-terrorism experts to Khartoum to talk about US allegations that the government supports what Washington calls terrorist groups. The team, the first of its kind to visit the country for some years, has been in Khartoum since at least June 22. 

The former Speaker of the Sudanese parliament, Hassan al-Turabi, has declared he is forming a new party. Mr Turabi's action follows his formal expulsion from the ruling National Congress Party, which he helped form and in which he served as secretary-general. Dr Turabi is far from being a spent force because he attracts a considerable following --especially among Muslim fundamentalists -- and his group of supporters includes some wealthy individuals. 

On 21 June, between 15-20 members of the Sudanese police stormed the Comboni College in Khartoum and ransacked the building, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. The invading police were divided into two groups: one entered the building while the other stood guard. The invaders forced their way to the Principal's office and ransacked it, stealing his mobile phone, photographs, files and valuable documents. They plundered a second room belonging to a staff member and also an electrical store. Upon receiving the news, Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum rushed to the scene accompanied by two lawyers. The group spent about an hour assessing the damage and attempting to establish the motive for the police action. 

The main Sudanese opposition grouping, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), has rejected a general amnesty offered by President Omar al-Bashir to all government opponents. However, the northern opposition group, the Umma party -- which broke away from the NDA earlier this year - - has tentatively welcomed the step, while calling for concrete action towards greater democratisation in Sudan. The amnesty covers anyone who has committed "acts of rebellion" since President Bashir took power in 1989. 

Renewed fighting in various parts of southern Sudan has caused a heavy influx of wounded into ICRC's surgical hospital in Lokichoggio, northern Kenya, reports ICRC. By 2 May the hospital had 646 patients in wards with a normal capacity of 560 patients. "This is the largest number of people we have ever had to care for in Lokichoggio", said Pierre Gratzl, the organisation's health and relief coordinator for Sudan. He said the hospital's two surgical teams were performing some 20 operations a day, and had carried out a total of 381 in April alone. 312 new patients were admitted in April. 

Operation Lifeline Sudan reports inter clan fighting, cattle raiding and aerial bombing in Eastern Upper Nile during April, and says flight access restrictions and insecurity have continued in several areas of southern Sudan during the month. In an April assessment report, OLS says ground and aerial bombardment during 1999 and 2000 has destroyed homes, crops and livestock in Western Upper Nile. Populations have been forced to flee. Mankien, Western Upper Nile, has received large numbers of IDPs in April as a result of ground fighting in nearby areas, reports OLS. Trade has been greatly reduced by insecurity, including bombardment of Mankien, which has disrupted agricultural activities. .

The Sudanese internet service, Sudanet, will provide Sudanese television programming through the internet to reach the two Americas and eastern Asia, reported Sudan TV. The national committee for television signed a contract with Sudanet on 11 May, which included live transmission, website and electronic mail services for the TV channel. .

Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, ousted as Speaker of Parliament by President Omar al-Bashir in December after a power struggle between the two, on Sunday threatened to turn to the people and refused to rule out the possibility of violence after Bashir moved to restrict his political influence even further. Bashir issued a presidential decree on Saturday suspending the national secretariat of the ruling National Congress Party - including Turabi, its Secretary-General - and closing down the offices of the party's secretaries in Sudan's 26 states, Sudanese media reported. Bashir said he had made every effort to resolve the power struggle but "was left with just two options: either to stand up to the situation or step down," Agence France Presse reported. The president alleged that Turabi had been inciting the army, security forces and police against the government, news organisations added. Leaders of the armed forces had pledged their full support for the presidential decree and "to counter any action that might put the country at risk," Sudanese television reported on Monday.

Turabi said he would ignore the presidential decree and continue his political activities within the party, the Sudanese paper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' reported. The former Speaker said on Tuesday that the suspended 60-member general secretariat had expelled Bashir and six senior aides for violating party rules, though Sudanese media suggested this would have no effect on Bashir's power base, including the army, whose senior officers on Monday pledged their "full support" for the president. The secretariat described its suspension as illegal and authoritarian, violating the charters of the Congress party. Turabi criticised Bashir in press interviews for pandering to western influences by undermining the religion of God, and issued thinly-veiled threats of an Islamist revolution to overthrow what he described as a power-hungry military dictatorship. The elected leaders of the Congress party would meet to decide on what action to take against Bashir, but "any possibility exists, including an armed confrontation," Turabi said. If there were a revolution, it would not be just against the regime but would be a penetrating one for the cause of Islam, he said. Bashir has sought to re-establish friendly international relations, with the west as well as with Arab countries, since suspending the national assembly that was Turabi's power base and seeking to marginalise him within Sudanese politics. .

Khartoum has made public its stated wish to see the use of a humanitarian rail corridor between Kosti and Wau - across the front line in the Sudanese civil war - to assist and drastically reduce the cost of humanitarian service delivery to affected populations. The government, encouraged by US Envoy to Sudan Harry Johnston in March, had formally written to the US to request the exemption from its economic embargo of parts needed by WFP to rehabilitate the rail line, according to a statement from the Ministry of External Relations. The government also reiterated a stipulation that "parties to the conflict undertake to supply full security guarantees to ensure the safety of UN convoys throughout their journey on this rail corridor." The link between the central town of Kosti and Wau, one of the largest cities in the south, was some way off, even if agreement could be reached on rehabilitation of rolling stock, and would be "for the exclusive use of the WFP" and not combatant parties, humanitarian sources in Khartoum told IRIN. 
The link could, in principle, be extremely useful in cutting the high costs associated with air delivery of food assistance but the railway was in a state of great disrepair so it would not be known how useful it really was until it worked in practice, they said. The Technical Committee for Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) had previously hammered out an agreement in principle on road, rail and barge humanitarian corridors between the government, the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the UN, and the government's statement was not something substantively new but a public commitment to the agreement, the sources added. 

The SPLM on Monday suspended its participation in the IGAD peace talks in protest at allegedly reckless bombing by the Sudanese government of civilian targets. The SPLM claimed, in a statement issued in Nairobi, that the government had flouted its own moratorium on such bombings when it bombarded SPLM-controlled areas of southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and eastern Sudan. The SPLM also said it would extend for another three months its 'humanitarian ceasefire' in certain areas of the south. The next round of IGAD talks, which have shown little sign as yet of providing any breakthrough in Sudan's 17-year civil war, was scheduled to take place in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on 17 May. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Tuesday that his delegation was committed to the talks on the set date unless and until told of their suspension by the talks mediator, Daniel Mboya of Kenya. The Sudanese army spokesman, General Osman Yassin, on Tuesday dismissed as an "unfounded allegation" SPLM claims of a government aerial bombardment, describing it as "a lie made as an excuse to escape from participation in the forthcoming round of talks," AFP reported. 

The US said on Friday it was "perplexed and concerned" by reports of renewed bombing attacks on Sudanese civilians since Bashir's 19 April announcement that his forces would stop all air raids against civilians. Washington urged Sudan "to live up to its commitment ... and ensure an end to all aerial bombardments in all parts of southern and eastern Sudan," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. .

Meanwhile, SPLM leader John Garang told Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa in Cairo that the movement favoured combining the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative on Sudan with the IGAD process "so that there would only be one track of negotiations, not two," the Egyptian news agency MENA reported on Tuesday. Garang said the Bashir-Turabi machinations meant a crisis existed within the Sudanese regime. He said they were "both competing about who was more fundamentalist and extremist," MENA stated. .

The damage inflicted on Sudan's oil pipeline in a rebel attack in the Bramio area, 30 km north of Sinkat town in Red Sea State, on 1 May was limited in scope, has since been repaired and did not affect the country's exports because it had enough fuel in stock at the Basha'ir Port to meet requirements, the official SUNA news agency quoted Energy and Mining Minister Mohamed Ali al-Tawn as saying. Even if the physical impact of the bombing was limited, the fact that the rebels had struck successfully for the third time at such a huge and prestigious project pointed to the ease with which they operated in the Sinkat area and would boost their morale, a former foreign affairs official, Lt-Gen Sirr Mohamed Ahmad, was quoted as saying on Sudanese television. Nonetheless, the oil companies involved had calculated for such losses and were unlikely to be forced into reconsidering their investment, Ahmad added.

Sudan and Tunisia have agreed to restore international relations and exchange diplomatic representation as a result of contacts established during recent summit meetings in Egypt and Cuba, according to Sudanese radio. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the move was an important event and would support the two countries positions' in regional and international fora, particularly with Tunisia currently being a member of the UN Security Council, it said. The restoration of relations with Tunisia was the last step in re-establishing diplomatic ties with all the Arab countries, he added. The two sides had agreed on a policy of mutual respect, non-interference in the internal affairs of the other and adherence to the Arab League's charter, a joint communiqué quoted by Sudanese television stated. .

6 May: President al-Bashir removes Sudanese Islamic leader Hassan al-Turabi from his position as secretary-general of the National Congress ruling party, accusing him of plotting with the army to overthrown him. 8 May: In an open defiance of President al-Bashir, al-Turabi vows to continue his political activities despite being sacked from a senior ruling party post. The deposed Islamic leader tells hundreds of supporters who gathered outside his house in Khartoum, that his dismissal was "unconstitutional". Mr al-Turabi accuses the President of betraying the Islamic movement. He says President al-Bashir is a "power- hungry military dictator who will soon be ousted by his own party". 

"Current stocks will finish at precisely the same time they are needed most, at the peak of the hunger months which last from April until October," the statement said. Dwindling food stocks have forced WFP to reduce essential therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes for the malnourished. Rations to other vulnerable people have already been halved. Only 11,300 mt of food had been donated out of an appeal for 55,000 mt issued in January, said WFP. 

In government-held areas of Eastern Equatoria, 228,000 people are said to be at risk of starvation in the towns of Torit and Kapoeta because of drought. A further 16,365 people in the northern province of Halaib on the Red Sea are similarly affected by a three year drought, the DPA news agency reported.

Eritrean opposition groups have claimed through pro-Ethiopian government media that Eritrea is repatriating refugees for military recruitment to use in the present border conflict with Ethiopia. 

The Unified Military Command of the Sudanese opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the weekend alleged that the government has launched a major military offensive on Hamash Koreb, Wadi, Zahana and Girgir on the eastern front. The "unjustified attack" came at a time when the NDA had presented a new peace proposal and regional efforts to end the conflict were ongoing, NDA spokesman Lt-Gen Said Abd al-Rahman said in a statement on the opposition 'Voice of Sudan' radio. Sudanese army spokesman Staff Lt-Gen Mohamed Osman Yassin, speaking on Thursday on state television, confirmed the fighting in the east and said the areas of Hamadayb, Gagaras and Zahana were now "free from the presence of aggressors". He said the army had inflicted heavy casualties on rebel forces, and would continue to clear the eastern region of "the remnants of traitors and aggressors". 

The non-governmental body Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) to talk to NGOs that pulled out of south Sudan last week, rather than sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the rebels. "The SPLA is behaving irresponsibly .. it has imposed an artificial and unnecessary deadline that puts many, many civilian lives at risk," HRW spokesman Jemera Rone said in a statement. "If the SPLA wanted to expel agencies that provide essential services to the civilian population [of south Sudan], it should have arranged a transition period so that other agencies could be brought in to cover civilian needs." The 11 international NGOs that pulled out had handled about 75 percent of humanitarian aid in SPLM-controlled areas, and HRW cautioned that it would not be easy for other agencies to overcome the "formidable logistical obstacles" to operating in south Sudan. "To reinvent the supply network is not something that can be done overnight," said Rone. 

The SPLM reiterated its position on Tuesday that no NGOs had been expelled or forced to leave its area of control in south Sudan. Spokesman Samson Kwaje said they had "opted to leave of their own volition" rather than have their activities regularised through a formal association between them and the rebels' Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA). "To misinform the international community that they were expelled is not only false propaganda but a malicious ploy," Kwaje said in a statement. He called on donors not to be misled or cut funding, since the memorandum was "neither about control nor sovereignty, but rather good organisation and smooth operations". 

Meanwhile, SRRA executive director Elija Malok on Monday said agencies which signed the MOU that the situation would be assessed over three months to see how it was working, and a review of its terms would be possible then, humanitarian sources told IRIN. Malok last week insisted  that NGOs which had not signed were "irrelevant" and would not be included in any such negotiations. 

Of the NGOs active in the coordination body, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), 11 refused to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, namely: CARE International, MSF-Holland, German Agro Action, Healthnet, Oxfam, Save the Children (UK), Veterinaires sans frontieres (Belgium and Germany), World Vision, Medecins du Monde and the Carter Center.  Sixteen NGOs active in the OLS chose to sign the agreement. They included: ADRA, AMREF, AAH, ARC, ACROSS, CRS, CCM, International Aid Sweden, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Medair, MSF-Belgium, Norwegian Church Aid, Radda Baren (Save the Children - Sweden), Tear Fund and Veterinaires sans frontieres (VSF) Switzerland. Some 22 NGOs who do not operate within the OLS umbrella, including MSF France and Switzerland, signed the agreement with the SRRA, as did eight indigenous NGOs. 

Two people were killed and about a dozen injured when a Sudanese government aircraft bombed a hospital compound of the American NGO, Samaritan's Purse, in the rebel-held town of Lui, 130 km northwest of Juba last week. The agency's Nairobi-based logistics coordinator Andrew Kinyanjui, quoted by the Associated Press agency (AP), said it was the first time the hospital - with a staff of 82 - had been bombed. The attack took place on the deadline day for NGOs to sign the SRRA's Memorandum of Understanding. Samaritan's Purse was one of those NGOs outside the OLS coordination body that signed the agreement. The head of Samaritan's Purse Franklin Graham - son of the evangelist preacher Rev Billy Graham – said the US was not doing enough to stop President Omar al-Bashir's government waging war on southern Sudan, AP added. 

A government Antonov bomber also bombed the compound of the Irish NGO, Concern, in Yirol on Saturday, the agency's Sudan programme manager Ann O'Mahony told IRIN on Wednesday.  The attack, in which two bombs hit the compound, was the first on Yirol, in the southern Lakes region of Bahr el Ghazal, in over a year. However Concern staff were worried that Antonovs had again flown overhead on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yambio and Maridi, in a line between Yirol and the DRC border, had also been bombed in recent days, O'Mahoney added. She said she did not believe Concern or any other NGOs were being targeted for having signed the Memorandum of Understanding. She considered that the bombings were merely to terrorise the population generally.

The US on Wednesday condemned the Lui and Yirol attacks, as well as the recently intensified bombing of relief sites, hospital facilities, schools and civilian population centres in the Nuba Mountains, Western Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal. "The bombing in Bahr el Ghazal contravenes the Sudanese government's own ceasefire agreement on the province," Department of State spokesman James Rubin said in a press statement. The fact the Sudanese government continued these "vicious attacks" during and immediately after the first mission to the country by US Special Envoy for Sudan Harry Johnston "calls into question the sincerity of the government's professed desire to improve relations with the US and to redress the grave human rights abuses in Sudan," Rubin said. "Calling these attacks 'a mistake' is neither credible nor sufficient. These bombings must stop."  Johnston said on Monday he had achieved "a breakthrough in dialogue" with Khartoum. 

"In what appears to be a prelude to a planned full military offensive, the regime has been carrying out massive bombardments of soft non-military targets," the SPLA said in a statement released in Nairobi. Local leaders continued to believe that the increased intensity of bombing raids, combined with a massive military build-up in the south, was closely connected to the oil pipeline that flowed through the Nuba area, media and humanitarian sources told IRIN. The government objective appeared to be to create a "cordon sanitaire" around the oilfields and pipeline in order to assure secure extraction, they added. 

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday confirmed last week's provisional judgement dismissing a petition against President Omar Bashir's dissolution in December of the National Assembly and suspension of parts of the constitution. Chairman of the court, Judge Jalal Ali Lutfi, ruled that issuing the decrees, which also established a three-month state of emergency in Sudan, was within Bashir's powers "due to the necessity to preserve the security and safety of the homeland", Sudanese television reported. The dismissal of the assembly occurred in the context of a power struggle between Bashir and former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi, in which Turabi was working to have the assembly curb the president's powers. Bashir on Wednesday welcomed the decision, saying the measures had been "important and timely" but would hopefully also be "limited and temporary". "We will issue more resolutions that will complete those issued on 4th Ramadan [12 December]," Bashir's statement added. 

A women's peace group attending a 10-day training and study tour in South Africa called on Monday for representation at the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) peace talks between the Khartoum government and the SPLM, taking place in Kenya. Group representative Rebecca Okwaci also called for South African "solidarity and moral support" in helping "discourage any elements that will contribute to the escalation of the war", the South African Press Agency (SAPA) reported. The 35 Sudanese women involved represented the government of Sudan, the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Nuba and Southern Women's Groups, a civil society group from Khartoum, the SPLM, the United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF) and the Non Partisan Group (NPG) based in Nairobi.

The fourth meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint ministerial commission ended on Monday with a resolution to reactivate the joint border commission.  Its tasks would include facilitating the movement of people and goods, as well as tackling potentially contentious border issues. The ministers also agreed to establish a joint political committee to convene every six months, and signed understandings on the use of ports, transport and communications, oil products, trade, water resources and investment, the official Suna news agency reported.  Sudanese and Ethiopian Foreign Ministers Mustafa Osman Ismail and Seyoum Mesfin also agreed to support Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh's peace initiative on Somalia as a step towards regional peace and development, it added.

WFP on Friday launched a US $58 million international appeal to feed 1.7 million people, the majority of them in southern Sudan, until the end of the year. Despite an improved nutritional situation in the country generally, "hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese are still at risk of hunger and malnutrition" as a result of war, drought and floods, according to WFP Country Director Mohamed Saleheen. In places where the   rains have been ideal for cultivation, insecurity had driven people from their homes and fields, and, where the food needs were greatest, a combination of insecurity and humanitarian flight denials had made it difficult to secure access to populations in need, WFP added. 

The situation was most critical in northern Bahr el Ghazal and Western Upper Nile, the agency said. Conditions in Aweil West in northern Bahr el Ghazal were "desperate" and "rapidly worsening" due to a combination of militia raids, internal displacement and exceptional flooding in low-lying areas.  Insecurity along the railway line which links the government-held garrisons of Wau and Aweil, was also plaguing people in Aweil West. Latest reports from the field indicated that up to 40,000 people had fled the region to neighbouring Bahr el Ghazal in the past few months, with many eking out a living in malarial swamps east and west of the towns of Koch and Nyal. Some 250,000 people in Western Upper Nile - half the population of the area - would need food aid this year, according to the WFP report. "While conflict continues, conditions for a return to famine remain an ever-present spectre," it added.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

Insecurity forces OLS flight suspension 

Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) has been forced to suspend humanitarian flights to Western Upper Nile as a result of the constant shifting of political allegiances and consequent insecurity that threatens the lives of humanitarian workers. This was especially so in light of confusion over where former vice-president Riek Machar stands since he tendered his resignation to President Omar al-Bashir last month, an OLS official told IRIN. The flight suspension applies particularly to those areas where OLS deals with the Relief Association of Southern Sudan (RASS), the humanitarian wing of the South Sudan United Movement of militia commander Peter Gadet, whose main operational area is the Bentiu-Mankien-Nyal region of Western Upper Nile.

The WFP/UNICEF barge between Malakal and Juba also remains suspended due to security concerns, and OLS is keenly aware of staff security in the wake of the recent kidnap of four associated personnel. They were released on 10 February at Old Fangak after being held for eight days. A national working for UNICEF, two Kenyans employed as pilots and a Sudanese national working with RASS were released after lengthy negotiations between the militia group, the Sudanese government and UN officials in Sudan. The combination of humanitarian needs and profound insecurity in the face of rapidly shifting power balances between and within the various rebel factions and pro-government militias means that Western Upper Nile is "an area of mounting concern", according to humanitarian sources. The current political and security situation remains "incredibly complex and confused", and is not helped by the numerous militias' jostling for power and control of the area's oil resources, they added.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

Talisman escapes sanctions after report linking oil and rights abuses 

Human rights activists this week criticised as inadequate the Canadian government's response to a report it had commissioned that linked the oil industry in southern Sudan with human rights abuses. Ottawa commissioned the report under pressure from human rights groups to sanction the Canadian oil company, Talisman Energy Inc, which has a 25 percent interest in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), accused of contributing to the war and human rights abuses in Sudan. John Harker, head of a Canadian assessment mission, reported on 14 February that the exploitation of oil resources had become a key issue in the civil war, that the Heglig airstrip in the Talisman concession in Upper Nile had been used by government helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers for attacks on civilian targets, and "mounting evidence that Canadian oil extraction activity is exacerbating the Sudan crisis". 

Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy subsequently announced "new Canadian initiatives aimed at bringing peace to Sudan," which included support for a return visit to southern Sudan (currently underway)  by UN Special Rapporteur on Sudan Leonard Franco; financial assistance to combat the abduction of women and children; an undertaking to use Canada's presidency of the UN Security Council in April to address the humanitarian impact of the conflict in Sudan; and the opening of a Canadian office in Khartoum to contribute to the peace process and promote respect for human rights. It also "strongly encouraged" Talisman to develop "an effective mechanism for monitoring its operations in Sudan to ensure that they do not lead to an increase in tensions, or otherwise contribute to the ongoing conflict". 

Mel Middleton, director of the human rights NGO Freedom Quest International in Calgary, Canada (where Talisman has its headquarters), on Tuesday criticised Axworthy for "back-tracking" on the issue of sanctions. "Axworthy said back in October that if the Harker report found a connection between the oil industry and human rights abuses, and a prolongation of the war, he would impose sanctions. However, he reneged on this and Canada can no longer claim neutrality on this issue," the 'Calgary Herald' quoted Middleton as saying. Talisman, meanwhile, welcomed Axworthy's announcement. Its chief executive Jim Buckee said in a press release that "renewed Canadian commitment to Sudan and the removal of the threat of sanctions are certainly good news for our company and the people of Sudan". He added that Talisman met the highest ethical standards and that his company's stake in GNPOC could serve as a catalyst for peace.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

US imposes sanctions on oil consortium 

Meanwhile, the US Department of the Treasury announced on 16 February that the GNPOC would be added to its list of companies considered to be owned or controlled by the Sudan government, and to which US sanctions are applied. It did not place sanctions on Talisman directly, or de-list it from the New York Stock Exchange - as had been demanded by human rights groups in the US.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

Days of tranquillity allow access to Nuba Mountains for polio campaign

A programme to immunise 77,000 children in the Nuba Mountains region against polio was launched on Wednesday, as part of a national immunisation campaign that started on 17 February and will continue to the end of the month, a UNICEF press release stated. The Nuba Mountains portion of the polio campaign marks the first time in almost 19 years that the UN has gained access to deliver humanitarian relief in this region, contested by the government and rebel SPLM. While UN agencies have conducted two recent assessment missions to the Nuba Mountains, this is the first time that Khartoum has approved the delivery of UN assistance to people living in the SPLM-controlled areas of the region, the statement added.  The government and SPLM have agreed on a "window of tranquillity", expected to last until the end of the month.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

UN calls on Khartoum to investigate school bombing incident 

Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for Children and Armed Conflict, on Tuesday called on all parties to the conflict in Sudan "to take measures to ensure that their forces do not attack civilian populations and sites". The call followed reports that 14 children and a teacher in the Nuba Mountains were killed, and 10 other children injured, when a bomb was dropped from an aircraft close to where  lessons were underway.  Otunnu also called on the government of Sudan to carry out "an urgent and full investigation" into the incident.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

IGAD peace talks resume in Kenya

The Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) peace talks on Sudan resumed in Kenya on Tuesday, with the facilitation of Kenyan special envoy Daniel Mboya, and were expected to continue until Saturday. The talks were moved out of the Kenyan capital Nairobi to be held behind closed doors in the central town of Nanyuki, in order to avoid leaks and public statements which had not helped previous rounds of talks, political sources told IRIN on Thursday. The focus of the talks was the separation of state and religion, and the right to self-determination of southern Sudan, they added.  Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said the government was willing to discuss the issue of separating religion from the state, a matter which in his view would not jeopardise the country's unity, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on Monday.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

Constitutional Court rejects petition against Bashir 

The Constitutional Court on Saturday decided to close the constitutional  12 December decree by President Omar al-Bashir which declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament, Sudanese television reported. Al-Bashir dissolved parliament to thwart an attempt by former parliamentary speaker Hassan al-Turabi - with whom he was engaged in a power struggle - to have the assembly limit the president's powers. Constitutional Court judge Jalal Ali Lutfi said on Saturday the president had the right to end the term of the National Assembly "in exercise of the powers given to him by the constitution," the television report said. Lutfi said the court would soon deliver its formal ruling on the constitutional petition and inform all parties of the verdict.  (IRIN, 24-02-2000)

The formation of a new rebel group, the South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM), was announced in Nairobi on Tuesday. Members of the group told journalists that it was "an interim political structure to oversee and nurse the political and military developments in Upper Nile". Its objective was to "mobilise the people of greater Upper Nile Region for their effective participation in the war of liberation".

A member of the group, Peter Adwok, told IRIN that the SSLM was launched on 31 January in Waat in central Upper Nile to "bring together all the tribes in the Upper Nile region who have been neutralised, hence ineffective, in the liberation struggle". He said the idea followed meetings with other rebel movements including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the establishment of the Upper Nile Provisional Military Command Council (UMCC) on 4 November 1999.  The UMCC supposedly "unified all the military forces" in central, eastern and western Upper Nile. "We want to bring together the Shulluk, Nuer, Dinka, Murle, Anjuak and Maban who have been neutralised since 1991 yet there is need for them to come back into the liberation struggle," Adwok said. He added that the SSLM would work with the SPLM/A as a "partner" in the struggle.  "We hope it will not degenerate to infighting akin to what happened in 1991 when everyone wanted [SPLA leader John] Garang's post," he said. "This time, it is not leadership of the movement but a unified fight against a common enemy." 

New group "unfortunate", SPLA says

The SPLM/A, for its part, described the move as "unfortunate". Its spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN he could not visualise how the SSLM would work in the "very fluid" Upper Nile situation.  "This is a traumatised area," he said. "Government forces, SPLM/A troops, Riak Machar, Paulino Matip, Peter Gadet, Tito Obial are all operating in this area." "Instead of uniting the tribes as they are saying they would like to, they may end up fighting each other and creating more misery," he warned. "What is the use of adding fuel to the fire?" 

He said his movement was "not very enthusiastic" about the SSLM "because it may end up diluting our efforts in the struggle". The fragmentation of the groups could also give the government "an easier time", he added. 

Sudan, NGOs working for the release of aid workers

Sudan's Commissioner-General for the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC)  Suluf al-Din Salih last week announced that the organisation is to coordinate a campaign to work for the release of 13 Sudanese nationals, working with voluntary organisations, who have been detained by rebel militias. The Sudanese news agency SUNA quoted Al-Din Salih as saying he had formed a committee to this effect which would launch an international campaign to oblige all parties to the conflict to commit themselves to international conventions. A UN official told IRIN on Thursday he had heard of the idea to launch such a campaign but was not aware of the number of detained workers, nor of the stage at which the "idea" currently 50 said killed in clashes  stood. 

50 said killed in clashes

More than 50 people have died and several others were injured following clashes between Maraheelen militias and SPLA troops at "Bangela"  in southeast Sudan this week, a newspaper report claimed. The 'Alwan' newspaper said 20 SPLA soldiers died in the clash while the militias lost 29. 

SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje, who could neither confirm nor deny the incident, said the name of the place where the incident reportedly took place was "debatable". "Unless the story is referring to Panjella in Upper Nile, we do not know about Bangela," he said. 

Iranian-built "peace road" to be inaugurated this month

An Iranian-built highway named the "peace road", which links northern Sudan to its southern parts, will be inaugurated on 8 February, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported. The highway links Jabalayn in the north to Rabak city in the south. It is "a gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Muslim nation of Sudan" at a cost of US $10 million, IRNA added.  Iranian officials said there were many problems in constructing the road which passes through rough terrain. 

OLS return to Upper Nile, Jonglei approved

Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) agencies have been given a green light to return to several locations in Upper Nile and Jonglei that had previously been out of bounds.  A report from OLS mentioned that areas such as Motot, Pieri, Langkien, Tangyang, Kaikuny, Walgak, Wanding and Pajut were now safe. The organisation is planning several assessments to the locations to determine the needs of the populations before providing assistance. 

Malnutrition reported in southern Bor county 

An assessment carried out by MEDAIR recently reported a global malnutrition rate of 21.7 percent in southern Bor county in Jonglei after a nutritional survey. OLS quoted the organisation as saying that out of this percentage, 2.1 percent of people were in a severe state. MEDAIR is planning another assessment to determine the cause of the malnutrition. 

Proposed reconciliation talks between President Omar al-Bashir and ousted Parliamentary Speaker Hassan al-Turabi - a powerful political rival whom Bashir sidelined when he declared a state of emergency and dissolution of the national assembly last week - have been postponed indefinitely. Information Minister Ghazi Salah Eddine Atabani said on Sunday the talks had not taken place on Saturday, as scheduled, and that no new date had been set for them, news organisations reported. 
Atabani said Bashir would accept mediation but that the state of emergency and dissolution of parliament were irrevocable, and there was "no question of compromise on the fundamental principle, which is that there will be no return to interference by the (National Congress) party in the affairs of state". Sudan's political crisis was sparked by Bashir's reassertion of authority on Sunday 12 December by dismissing Turabi as legislative leader and dismantling parliament two days before it was expected to pass a bill introduced by pro-Turabi legislators to reduce Bashir's presidential powers. 

Turabi, who denounced what he called "an assault on the people's constitution" and said "Sudan is now led by an autocratic regime", called on Sunday for an emergency meeting of the consultative council of the National Congress Party for 27 December. It would have the party "examine the exclusion of Bashir and his supporters if mediation has failed to make the head of state go back on his decision to dissolve parliament", Agence France Press (AFP) reported. Turabi said parliament had also decided to challenge Bashir's emergency declaration in the constitutional court. He said he would not initiate any violent confrontation, but warned of the possibility of "unrest in the streets of Khartoum" and said the role of the reconciliation committee was "to avert an escalation in the political crisis so that it does not deteriorate into demonstrations and strikes", AFP added. 

There has been strong support for Bashir from Arab leaders, with Saudi Arabia saying at the weekend it was "an internal affair" and both Libyan and Egyptian presidents Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi declaring their support for their Sudanese counterpart. A spokesman for the US State Department, which has led the effort to isolate the Islamist state of Sudan internationally, said it was more a battle of personalities than policies. "What we're looking for is a change of policies in Sudan, policies that would promote reconciliation, an end to the civil war," the 'Washington Post' quoted spokesman James Foley as saying.

Other regional observers believe Bashir to be less bound by ideology than Turabi, pointing to improved relations with Ethiopia and recent peace deals with opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi and with Uganda as evidence of his political pragmatism. Senior lecturer and research analyst at Nairobi University, Professor Moustafa el Said Hassouna, told IRIN that although Bashir's declaration of a state of emergency was "ill-timed" and had caused "fear and apprehension" in Khartoum, his pact with the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had given him a new dose of legitimacy in the region. "Despite this unprecedented move [suspension of parliament], he is seen as the more acceptable face of the conflict," Hassouna said. 

The leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) John Garang has welcomed what he called "the Bashir coup" as a crisis that marked "the beginning of the end of the NIF (the National Islamic Front - renamed the National Congress Party) and its regime". The relative power balance in the Sudanese army between three factions: the Bashir and Turabi factions of the NIF, and "a non-NIF faction, by far the largest group in the army" would be critical in the resolution of the crisis in Khartoum, Garang said in a press release.  He also called on the Sudanese people "to remain vigilant and use the crisis within the NIF to bring about full and real change" in the country. 

There has been limited response from the leadership of the opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance, perhaps because it has been highly divided internally in recent months over whether the NDA should negotiate with Khartoum or continue its armed struggle until the regime collapses.  The NDA recently agreed in Uganda to support the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD)  peace talks, but with greater involvement by northern, Islamic elements of the NDA rather than leaving the southern-oriented SPLM/A to negotiate alone. The think-tank Oxford Analytica has suggested that Umma party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, who caused dissension in NDA ranks by going his own way in signing a recent peace deal with Bashir, may yet have a critical role to play. If he were to switch sides and back Bashir against Turabi, "a more unified government under Bashir could lead to more coherent peace talks", Oxford Analytica said. 

Meanwhile, an IGAD delegation arrived in Khartoum late last week for preliminary negotiations on the possibility of holding peace talks in January between the government and the SPLA. The delegation, led by Kenyan presidential envoy to the peace process Daniel Mboya and including diplomats from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda and Djibouti, is exploring the possibility of a new round of talks in Nairobi on 15 January and discussing how to make this work where previous negotiations have failed to make progress, news media reported. 

The Sudanese government, SPLM/A and humanitarian agencies - under the auspices of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) - agreed last week in Switzerland on a set of 'Principles Governing the Protection and Provision of Humanitarian Assistance to War-Affected Civilian Populations' in Sudan.  They agreed that agencies accredited by the UN should have "free and unimpeded access" to vulnerable populations, with the UN to decide on routes and logistics for humanitarian assessments and deliveries. It was also guaranteed that all aid would be distributed "only to targeted civilian beneficiaries" and would not be taxed or diverted from those. The Principles also bound the SPLM/A - though it is not a formal signatory to international treaties on human rights - to "customary human rights law", moral and ethical obligations to keep civilian populations safe from the effects of war. Khartoum and the SPLM/A also gave undertakings not to enforce illegal relocations of civilians and, where communities were to be relocated, to give adequate notice and consult communities.

Both the government and rebels "reaffirmed their strong commitment to the opening of the Lokichokkio-Kapoeta cross-line corridor" through both the direct route (via Narus, Lolin and Buno) and the detour route (via Narus, Napotpot, Nakachori). It was agreed that arrangements should be made immediately to de-mine the direct route and that an assessment of the detour route should also be completed by February 2000. The UN is also to establish an office in Kapoeta for the receipt and distribution of humanitarian goods. "We have made good progress. We have created a basis for improving access, protection of beneficiaries and security," said Tom Vraalsen, UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Assistance in Sudan. 

Water and sanitation have become major health problems in Khartoum's camps for displaced people, with some 90 percent of water samples taken from households in Elsalam and Wad El Bashir camps found to "highly contaminated", according to the International Federation of the Red Cross.  While water sources were found to be clean and fit for human consumption, improper handling of water, poor hygiene and sanitation practices – in addition to stagnant water near distribution points - meant that water-borne diseases were a big threat in the camps, which cater for 100,000 and 26,000 people respectively, IFRC reported. The agency planned to introduce a "hygiene and sanitation transformation in the community," it added. 

12 December: President Omar al-Bashir has declared a state of emergency in Sudan which will last for three months. He says the move is to preserve unity in the country because of what he describes as dangers from abroad, and internal problems. The move follows a mounting power struggle between the President and parliamentary Speaker, Hassan al-Turabi. The President also issued a decree dissolving Parliament and authorising new parliamentary elections, but no date is given. 13 December: Sudan is in political turmoil. President Al-Bashir says he acted to control a power struggle with Hassan al-Turabi. Mr Turabi denounces the President's move as a coup d'etat. Reports from Khartoum say soldiers have been posted outside parliament. Appearing in military uniform, the President says that two captains commanding one ship would cause it to sink. 14 December: Egypt and Libya have backed President al-Bashir. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail resigns to protest the imposition of emergency rule. 15 December: Hassan al-Turabi meets with his supporters at the headquarters of what was the ruling party, the National Congress.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday signed an agreement aimed at re-establishing diplomatic relations and promoting peace in the region, a communiqué issued by the mediating body, the Carter Centre, said. "President al-Bashir and President Museveni have taken an important step to restoring diplomatic relations and encouraging peace in their countries and all of East Africa," former US president Jimmy Carter said after the signing ceremony in Nairobi. Among the pledges contained in the 11-point document are renouncing the use of force to resolve differences, disbanding and disarming terrorist groups, respecting each country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, ceasing support to any rebel groups. They also agreed to return all prisoners of war to their respective nations, locate and return abductees to their families and offer amnesty and reintegration  assistance to all former combatants who renounce the use of force. 
A statement from the Carter Centre said the agreement also called for the formation of a joint ministerial committee and technical support teams to establish a timetable of specific steps to implement the agreement. The accord is complementary to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace process. Contrary to press reports, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi only participated as host and witness during the signing, and not as chairman, a Kenyan foreign ministry official told IRIN. He said shuttle diplomacy and talks had been going on between the two countries "for a while" and that it seemed the Sudanese government "has confidence" in the Carter Centre.

Meanwhile, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) John Garang on Wednesday said it was unfortunate that neither Kampala nor Khartoum had informed him of the Nairobi summit, the independent Ugandan 'Monitor' reported. The paper quoted him as saying he was not bothered by the talks since they were "neither the first nor the last". He also said he did not receive military support from Uganda and that there were presently no SPLA soldiers on Ugandan soil. "All we need in Uganda and other neighbours are open borders for the local population to trade, and passage for our military hardware," he said. 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday welcomed the Sudan government's declaration of a "comprehensive" ceasefire throughout the country for a period of 70 days. In a statement, Annan said the ceasefire would facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance by road, air and river to all areas in need. "A ceasefire is essential for the provision of much needed humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children affected by the ongoing conflict," Annan said. He called on the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to consider extending the scope of a ceasefire it declared in mid-July for Bahr-El-Ghazal and western and central Upper Nile, "and thus contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for humanitarian operations in the Sudan," the statement said. 

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that severe flooding in Sudan caused by unusually heavy rains has destroyed more than 10,000 homes and left 50,000 people in "urgent need of assistance." In a statement received by IRIN on Wednesday, the Federation said levels of major rivers were exceedingly high for this time of the year and, with the rainy season having barely begun, "the scale of disaster is alarming." Worst-affected so far is Khartoum State where 11 flood-related deaths have been recorded, followed by the areas of River Nile, North Kordofan, Sennar and Gezira. "Other flood-prone states are on full alert including Kassala, Gedaref, White Nile and Northern State," the statement said. 

The Sudanese Red Crescent has begun a relief operation with "limited in-country resources," the Federation said. Teams of trained Red Crescent volunteers have been mobilised in all affected and alerted states. A public information campaign was underway to warn of the associated health risks and provide advice on preventive measures. It reported that cases of diarrhoeal diseases were already increasing in affected areas, and contaminated stagnant water would worsen the situation. Federation assessments indicated that medical intervention was required to help up to 100,000 people at this stage, but it said "there is a shortage of crucial health and relief supplies. The immediate needs of flood victims are shelter, blankets and access to clean water." Meanwhile, the Governor of Khartoum State has said that the flood levels were higher than those of 1998 when dozens of people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed, the UN Humanitarian Coordination Unit (UNHCU) reported in its latest update, received by IRIN on Wednesday.

Flight bans imposed by the Sudanese government have been lifted in Leer, Daur and Bor, the UNHCU update said. However, it said air access to Nyal and Ganyiel in western Upper Nile remained prohibited. Khartoum had cited "security concerns" as the reason for the ban. The report said the government had indicated that fighting in the region was now scaling down and that the flight restrictions for the two locations would be "lifted very shortly." 

The Khartoum Regional Coordination Group (RCG) - recently formed as part of the new Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) coordination structure for the northern sector - has "noted with concern" the government's recent announcement of its plans to relocate some 230,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from four Khartoum camps to locations which have "limited social amenities," the UNHCU report said. The affected IDPs currently reside in the Jebel Aulia, Mayo Farms, Wad el Bashir and El Salaam camps. The RCG, comprising UN agencies and international NGOs, stressed the need to provide adequate basic amenities, such as water and health services, before relocations are carried out to avoid a humanitarian crisis. It also said relocations should not take place during the rainy season because of the difficulty of building new houses. 

Sudan's External Affairs Minister Mustafa Uthman Ismail at the weekend said that Norwegian People's Aid (NPA), Christian Solidarity International (CSI)  and the Sudan Human Rights Organisation were collaborating with the rebel movement in an attempt to "destabilise Sudan and put pressure on the government," SUNA reported. Ismail told journalists that these organisations "are working to arouse international and regional public opinion against the Sudan by circulating false allegations." He said the government was "working to expose the falsehood of these allegations." 

SPLM leader John Garang on Friday said his movement had changed its strategy and was now dealing with "development issues and the provision of various types of services to people." He told journalists in Nairobi that since there has been no significant government offensive since 1997, "what we are doing in the south now is developmental - concentrating on the building of civil structures and even economic development, provision of services to our people." Garang said his movement was now operating over 2,000 elementary schools, which was "an indication of changing phase from a purely military to a developmental phase."