Sudan starts releasing blocked Unamid supplies

Sudan has begun releasing food rations and other supplies for Unamid peacekeepers in Darfur.

Last week, members of the UN Security Council accused the Sudanese authorities of withholding supplies for the nearly 20,000 military and police personnel of the joint UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid).

“Unamid reports that 52 containers have been released by the Sudanese authorities and are presently being loaded and moved by the contractor to Khartoum from Port Sudan,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement on Wednesday.

“A further 91 containers are currently being processed while the remaining 60 are at different stages of the clearance process,” he added.

Khartoum justified the holding of the containers by saying that that the international peacekeeping mission, which began operations in 2007, did not have proper clearance for the shipment.

Sudan's UN Ambassador Omar Dahab Mohamed told Reuters that Unamid chief Abiodun Bashua “intentionally ignored and surpassed” agreed mechanisms for dealing with the clearance of the containers as well as the issuance of visas.

A UN peacekeeping official rejected the allegation and said that Unamid followed the agreed on procedures in this case and on other areas of disagreements, such as the issuance of visas.

(Source: UN, Louis Charbonneau/Reuters)