United Nations officials and the Security Council yesterday called for a halt to the fighting in Southern Kordofan amid reports of aerial bombings of civilians and mass graves, and called on Khartoum to provide access for humanitarian assessment and assistance.
Members of the Council urged all parties to respect humanitarian principles and to allow humanitarian personnel timely and unfettered access to the affected civilian population, Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency this month, told reporters.His comments followed a closed-door meeting of the Council with Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who briefed the 15-member body on the situation in Southern Kordofan, where fighting continues despite an agreement signed last month between the parties.
Ms. Amos said she was increasingly alarmed by the mounting allegations of mass graves in South Kordofan, and of reported disappearances of civilians, targeting of people on an ethnic basis, and extra-judicial killings.
She said the Government of Sudan has repeatedly denied the UN access to the area since the skirmishes between its forces and those of the SPLM-North began in early June.