The SA government has agreed to use its influence to ensure Sudan’s government allows international humanitarian relief agencies into southern Sudanese war zones to avert a threatened famine.

And Sudan has indicated it would respond favourably to an SA appeal.

The government in Khartoum is blocking UN agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) from entering the two provinces of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where rebels and the central government in Khartoum have been fighting since the middle of last year.

Diplomats believe it fears that allowing the charities in would be a prelude to much greater international interference and pressure to surrender power to the rebels.

The US’s special envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, met members of the government this week to urge it to get involved in what Lyman called “a looming humanitarian disaster”.

Lyman, a former ambassador to SA, said the regional Famine Early Warning System Network had just forecast that by March this year up to 500 000 people affected by the fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile “will be facing an emergency condition bordering on famine”.

“The dilemma today is that the government of Sudan does not allow international humanitarian assistance into these areas.

“The prospect of hundreds of thousands of people dying with no access to food or medicine is something we can’t accept.

“And it really depends much more on African leadership than that from the United States,” Lyman added, appealing to SA to “rise to its own leadership role” to prevent a disaster.

Privately, US officials say they believe that SA, with its seats on the UN Security Council and the AU’s Peace and Security Council, has the clout to persuade Khartoum to change its mind. They hope SA will raise the issue at the AU summit which starts in Addis Ababa on Monday.

SA’s special envoy to Sudan, Charles Nqakula, responded that SA would be getting involved in efforts to get humanitarian assistance into the two provinces.

He was speaking at a press conference in Pretoria on Wednesday after participating in a seminar on the Sudan crisis with Lyman and the envoys of Sudan and South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan last July.

“We are looking at partnerships to ensure that particular issue is addressed… effectively.

“So we are going to participate to ensure that the crisis is averted.” – The Star