Bashir orders full aid access to South Sudan famine areas

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir attending the opening session at the 25th African Union Summit in Sandton, Johannesburg. South Africa will withdraw from the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), media reports in Johannesburg said on October 21, 2016, sparking rapid criticism from rights bodies. A document confirming the withdrawal plan, signed by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, was published by public broadcaster SABC's United Nations correspondent. The "Instrument of Withdrawal" letter said South Africa "found that its obligations with respect to the peaceful resolution of conflicts at times are incompatible with the interpretation given by the International Criminal Court". The decision follows a dispute last year when South Africa allowed Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to visit the country for an African Union summit, despite him facing an arrest warrant from the ICC. / AFP PHOTO / GIANLUIGI GUERCIA

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir / AFP PHOTO / GIANLUIGI GUERCIA

President Omar al-Bashir has ordered Sudanese authorities to assist the delivery of international humanitarian aid to famine-hit South Sudan through the country, an official said Thursday.

On Monday, South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation formed after splitting from the north in 2011, declared famine in some regions, saying 100,000 people faced starvation and another million were on the brink of famine.

“President Omar al-Bashir has ordered Sudanese authorities to offer all necessary facilities to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches South Sudan through Sudanese territories,” Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said in a statement.

Ghandour said Bashir has ordered assistance to all NGOs, aid agencies of the United Nations and also other countries trying to deliver supplies to South Sudan.

“This is to ease the suffering of the South Sudanese people,” the minister said.

Aid groups have slammed a “man-made” famine caused by bloodshed in South Sudan where civil war has forced people to flee, disrupted agriculture, sent prices soaring and cut off aid agencies from some of the worst-hit areas.

South Sudan has been engulfed by civil war since 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his rival and former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

More than 300,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in Sudan since the war erupted, according to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

Over 65 percent of the refugees are children, with many of them arriving with critical levels of malnutrition, it said.

UN aid officials are monitoring the Sudan-South Sudan border in anticipation that thousands more could flee to the northern neighbour due to the famine situation.

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