Goal withdraws staff from Sudanese border town

AID AGENCY Goal has withdrawn its eight international staff, including one Irish employee, working in the disputed Abyei region along Sudan’s north-south border.

The agency said that because of the escalation in fighting in oil-rich Abyei between northern and southern Sudanese forces it had closed its four primary health care clinics and withdrawn its international staff.

Goal’s country director for southern Sudan, Ken McCarthy, said the eight international staff had moved to work in primary health care clinics about four hours’ drive further south in the state of Warrap.

Local staff were not moved. Mr McCarthy said that was “the policy of all non-governmental organisations” as it was “almost impossible” to move local employees.

The Northern Sudanese army seized Abyei town in a move the south described as an illegal invasion. The town is a flashpoint, claimed by both north and south, and is due to become a formally independent county in July.

Mr McCarthy said it was “standard operating procedure” to remove staff in such situations because the agency had a low tolerance of risk.

Two of the agency’s aid workers, Irishwoman Sharon Commins and Ugandan Hilda Kawuki, were kidnapped from a Goal compound in Sudan’s north Darfur in 2009 and held for 107 days before being released. Ms Commins subsequently accused the agency of failing to provide proper protection for staff.

Goal says it will not be returning to the Abyei area until the two warring sides agree a permanent settlement. The agency has a total of about 660 people working in southern Sudan.