Off the wire
• Struggling Granada sack coach Sandoval  • Feature: Red Cross humanitarian aid helps pull civilians in E. Ukraine through crisis  • 1st LD: Syrian president sets date for parliamentarian elections  • Chinese scientists find potential infertility treatment for PCOS patients  • Urgent: Syrian president sets date for parliamentarian elections  • 1st LD Writethru: Gold down on stronger U.S. equities, dollar  • Roundup: EU has "strong platform" to fight migrant smuggling: Europol chief  • Interview: Cooperation with Turkey crucial in tackling migrant smuggling: EU commissioner  • Urgent: Gold down on stronger U.S. equities, dollar  • Kazakhstan's Olympic weightlifting champions on IWF's list  
You are here: 　 Home

UN unable to verify reports of new displacement in Sudan's Central Darfur: spokesman

Xinhua, February 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations has been unable to verify reports of significant new displacement of civilians in Central Darfur of Sudan despite multiple requests for access to the affected areas, a UN spokesman told reporters here Monday.

"This follows an escalation of fighting in the Jebel Marra area since mid-January," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, quoting a source with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as saying.

In the past week, a small number of humanitarian personnel reached Nertiti in Central Darfur and humanitarian organizations were also present in the state capital, Zalingei, said the spokesman. "However, access to affected areas and newly displaced people continues to be denied."

"The UN and its partners continue to call on the authorities to grant immediate and unhindered access for independent humanitarian organizations In Central Darfur so that the needs can be assessed and life-saving assistance can be provided," the spokesman said.

In North Darfur, which borders Central Darfur, the UN currently estimates that close to 85,000 people, mainly women and children have fled fighting in the Jebel Marra area over the past five weeks.

On Sunday, Sudan banned UN agencies and international organizations from moving in Central Darfur State, citing security reasons.

The United Nations and other international organizations have earlier complained about "significant restrictions" for them to access to thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), due to continued military clashes at Jebel Marra in Sudan's Darfur region.

"The movement of the organizations is limited due to military operations, but it is temporary," Kamal-Eddin Ismail, state minister at Sudan's foreign ministry, said at a press conference Sunday.

Earlier, OCHA said in a report that national and international humanitarian organisations are currently not able to carry out any verification or assessment of newly displaced people who arrived in Central Darfur from the Jebel Marra.

In middle of last January, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese army and the rebels of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/Abdul-Wahid Nur faction around Jebel Marra area in Sudan's Central Darfur State. Endit