Madam, – The decision by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to eject all foreign aid workers by the end of this year could prove the death-knell for the millions who rely for survival on humanitarian aid.
The expulsion earlier this month of 13 of the largest NGOs working in Darfur, along with three Sudanese agencies, meant that the aid community’s capacity to deliver vital relief supplies there was cut in half.There are now 1.5 million people, roughly the same population of the greater Dublin area, without healthcare. Similar numbers will no longer have access to food aid or clean water.
It is simply unconscionable that aid agencies and the people they serve are being made to pay the price for the political bickering between the Sudanese authorities and the International Criminal Court. All members of the international community with the ability to influence the Sudanese, particularly China and Russia, must do all they can to convince President Bashir to reverse his calamitous resolution. – Yours, etc,