World 'must double food aid to Sudan' (but Sudan rejects 30 day deadline)

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1274445,00.html

World 'must double food aid to Sudan'

Agencies
Monday August 2, 2004

<snip>Outrage from Western governments and suggestions that Europe and the US could deploy troops have put pressure on Sudan's government, but it says it cannot meet the UN deadline to disarm the militias.

The foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, yesterday described the 30-day deadline as "illogical", and said his country would instead implement a 90-day programme earlier agreed to with the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

<snip>The Khartoum government and Sudan People's Liberation Army signed a ceasefire in October 2002, but the Institute for Security Studies said violence persisted in the Upper Nile and Shilluk regions, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee.

A formal peace deal ending 21 years of war - Africa's longest civil conflict - is expected later this year, but the ISS said Khartoum was intent on perpetuating instability in the south ahead of a six-year transitional period ending with a referendum on secession.<snip>

At stake are the south's newly tapped oil fields - claimed by the SPLA - which produce much of the 300,000 barrels a day that earn Sudan in excess of $3bn (£1.6bn) a year.<snip>