♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

♦ Chikungunya outbreak: Numbers spike in Kassala state

October 2 – 2018 KASSALA Government officials in Kassala report that 13,400 people have been infected with the mosquito-borne chikungunya fever on Sunday, an increase of 23 per cent in a week time.

Kassala state government reported one week ago that 10,900 people were infected in the state during the past weeks. A medical source told Radio Dabanga on Thursday that at least 40 people died of chikungunya fever in eastern Sudan’s Kassala last week.

Security officers stopped blood donated by people in El Gezira from reaching Kassala. Families of chikungunya patients in Kassala had appealed for blood donations, as reserves sent from Khartoum and other states are running out. The Kassala Blood Bank, however, does not accept blood from the town’s population because of the epidemic there, medical volunteers in El Gezira explained. Chikungunya has also been reported in Red Sea state, Dongola and Senna

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♦ Sudan agrees with UN plan for aid delivery in rebel-held areas

September 30 – 2018 KHARTOUM The Sudanese government Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) has approved a UN initiative to deliver humanitarian aid to people living in rebel-controlled areas in the Two Areas (South Kordofan and Blue Nile states). Humanitarian Aid Commissioner-General Ahmed Mohamed Adam said in a press conference in Khartoum on Thursday that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) office in Sudan will coordinate the provision of aid with the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) if the latter agrees.

Although the numbers of the people-in-need living in the rebel-held areas are unknown, the WFP has sufficient food items and shelters for them, Adam said. He explained that of the 17 localities in the two states, only three are controlled by the armed movement. The Sudanese Relief and Reconstruction Agency, an organisation allied to the SPLM-N, said in an open letter on Wednesday that the people living in the rebel-controlled areas are still in need of aid.

Peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N collapsed in 2015 and 2016 as both parties adhered to their stances concerning the itinerary of humanitarian aid to the rebel-controlled areas. The SPLM-N claimed that the government aimed to use the aid delivery to enter its troops into the rebel-hold areas, and enter its troops. The Sudanese government said it wanted to oversee the aid distribution as it feared the rebels would benefit from it.

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