SECRETARY-GENERAL EXPRESSES SATISFACTION THAT UN HUMANITARIAN ASSESSMENT MISSION TO SPLM/A-HELD AREAS IN SOUTH KOFDOFAN STATE OF SUDAN IS PROCEEDING POSITIVELY

Press Release
SG/SM/7040
AFR/148

SECRETARY-GENERAL EXPRESSES SATISFACTION THAT UN HUMANITARIAN ASSESSMENT MISSION TO SPLM/A-HELD AREAS IN SOUTH KOFDOFAN STATE OF SUDAN IS PROCEEDING POSITIVELY

The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General has expressed his satisfaction in noting that the United Nations Inter-agency humanitarian assessment mission to the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement Army (SPLM/A)-held areas of the Nuba Mountains, in the South Kordofan state of the Sudan, began yesterday and is proceeding positively. The mission, including representatives of the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP), will assess humanitarian needs of vulnerable civilian populations in the area.

This is the first time that the United Nations is able to assess humanitarian conditions in this particular area since the early 1980s. The mission, which is expected to visit five villages, is scheduled to complete its assessment and return to Khartoum on 24 June.

The Secretary-General welcomes the cooperation begin extended to the mission by both the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/A, and hopes that United Nations humanitarian agencies will be able to count on their continued support for the provision of relief to all those in need of humanitarian aid throughout the Sudan.

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