Khartoum’s "Sudan Petroleum Corporation" (SPC) has indicated it will stop supplying the jet fuel required by the UN’s World Food Program [WFP] for its aircraft; this comes shortly after operations resumed in Khartoum’s refineries following an annual maintenance shutdown (which contributed to an extremely severe fuel crisis at the most difficult period of the past rainy season).
Notably, the SPC did not notify WFP directly, but rather simply informed Malaysia’s Petronas, the conduit for fuel deliveries; SPC indicated it would supply only an additional 1,500 metric tons of jet fuel---enough for perhaps a week of WFP operations (many details here are provided in a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update, October 12, 2005).
This abrupt one-week deadline ensures that there will be a significant interruption in the supply of jet fuel, and thus in the flights carrying food to all areas supplied out of the major air base at El Obeid (Kordofan Province). This will directly affect Bahr el-Ghazal in southern Sudan, which currently has very high rates of malnutrition---and Darfur, which is ever more dependent on air supply, given the lack of security on the ground.
If not reversed under international pressure, this act of logistical sabotage by Khartoum will likely force an extremely disruptive move of WFP operations to locations outside Sudan.
Full report by Prof E Reeves via Sudan Tribune 17 Oct 2005.
Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa African+Union Genocide Intervention Fund European+Union NATO security terrorism WFP petroleum UN aid work Africa+oil UN evacuate war crimes Khartoum war malnutrition ethnic cleansing genocide ICC
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