The top United Nations aid official Friday cut short his visit to Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and returned to Khartoum after the Government denied him permission to travel outside the state capitals, warning it was too dangerous, according to UN News Centre.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who is making his fourth visit to Darfur, met some of those displaced by the escalating violence in the region Thursday, when he said security was now worse than ever.
Mr. Egeland returned to Khartoum two days earlier than scheduled, after he was denied permission to travel beyond Darfur’s state capitals by the Government of Sudan, for unspecified security reasons.
Mr. Egeland had originally planned to visit six locations in Darfur to meet with actors on the ground and review the humanitarian situation in those critical areas. But when the Sudanese Government said no to four of those locations, Mr. Egeland cut short his trip with regret, saying that he refused to go and just sit in the offices.
This latest development comes less than a day after Sudan’s Government agreed with the UN, the African Union (AU) and representatives from Security Council countries and others to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur alongside those of the AU mission already there trying to halt the violence.
