Khartoum, 8 May (AKI) - UN secretary general Kofi Annan's top human rights envoy was among a group of aid workers and journalists evacuated from a refugee camp in the south of Sudan's troubled Darfur region, local reports said. Undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland was visiting the Kalma camp when a demonstration turned violent with one aid worker accused by some of the refugees of being a member of the pro-government milititia was attacked. In the ensuing chaos a UN vehicle was attacked by angry residents wielding stones and axes.
Egeland had been finally allowed by the Khartoum government to visit Darfur on Sunday. An earlier attempt to visit Darfur in April was blocked by authorities who claimed Egeland wouldn't be safe. When Egeland finally travelled into Darfur, he was met in Nyala on Sunday by a small group of men who protested his visit because of last winter's publication in Scandinavia of cartoons deemed offensive to the prophet Mohammed.
Egeland has appealed for more resources for humanitarian aid to Darfur "from the entire world." Egeland said that even though a peace plan agreed last Friday by the main rebel group and the governemtn was supposed to allow aid groups unlimited access to Darfur, "it's not happening in practice."
Representatives from both the Kahrtoum government and the largest rebel group in Darfur signed a peace plan for the region on Friday, but two other rebel groups refused. Egeland said he hoped his visit would pressure the other rebel leaders into agreeing to the peace initiative. |