Sudan.

As the Sudan entered its 15th consecutive year of civil war, more than 4 million people required assistance to cope with the effects of war and displacement, including malnutrition and widespread disease caused by a severe shortage of adequate health care, lack of clean drinking water, appalling sanitary conditions and inadequate shelter.

Responding to intensified fighting and widespread drought, the United Nations on 19 February appealed for $109.4 million to meet Sudan's urgent humanitarian needs. The appeal sought to help more than 4 million war- and drought-affected Sudanese, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It also covered projects aimed at protecting livelihoods and reestablishing communities and social networks. In addition, participating UN agencies were appealing for funds to address some of the underlying causes of civilian suffering through a mine-awareness programme. Last year, the United Nations received only 40 per cent of the $120.8 million required for emergency activities in the Sudan, seriously compromising its ability to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis. The lack of funding hampered efforts to adequately respond in hard-hit locations where malnutrition rates rose to over 50 per cent.

OCHA on 9 February stated that the Government of Sudan denied humanitarian agencies access to recently displaced populations. The previous week, the Government suspended all flights into the Bahr el Ghazal region of southern Sudan. An estimated 100,000 displaced people were reported to be fleeing the civil conflict that recently flared up in and around the towns of Wau, Aweil and Gogrial. The displaced people were gathering in Bahr el Ghazal, and were weak, hungry and in urgent need of assistance in the form of food, medicines and shelter materials.

On 20 January, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern at the plight of Sudanese refugees who had been rounded up and relocated in Ethiopia. There were approximately 80,000 Sudanese refugees in camps in Ethiopia; the other larger group of refugees were Somalis who are estimated at 250,000.

High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata was gravely concerned about the round-up of Sudanese in Addis Ababa. In many cases, they were removed from their homes with no opportunity to collect their belongings, and families were split up.

In a 13 February letter to the Security Council, the Government of Eritrea protested against acts of aggression by the Sudanese Army across the border into Eritrean territory at Arbaete Asher on 24 January, when three Eritrean nationals were killed by heavy artillery.

On 27 February, Eritrea again brought to the attention of the Council what it termed as "repeated acts of aggression" by the Sudan in the region known as Gulij, Talataasher and Germaika, near its border with Sudan.

On 12 February, several Sudanese high government officials, including First Vice President Al-Zubeir Mohammad Saleh, died in a plane crash in Sudan on 12 February. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was deeply saddened to learn of the death of the officials, and extended his heartfelt condolences to the Government and the bereaved families.

RELATED ARTICLE: Assessment: Human Rights Situation, Sudan

On 8 December 1997, Special Rapporteur Gaspar Biro on the human rights situation in the Sudan had condemned an assault on women demonstrators in Khartoum. He said that on 1 December some 50 women demonstrating against the forced military conscription of their sons had been assaulted with sticks and rubber hoses. Police allegedly beat and slapped the women, who were arrested and dragged into police vehicles. One woman remained in critical condition and a number had to be hospitalized, he said. Approximately 34 of the women were sentenced to ten strokes, while another suffered 40 strokes, allegedly because she was "improperly dressed in trousers and a t-shirt". Mr. Biro had called on the Sudanese Government to investigate the attack and punish those responsible.