No. 21

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham today joined Senator Lois Wilson, Canada's Special Envoy for Sudan, in expressing deep concern about attacks against civilians and humanitarian workers in southern Sudan by the Government of Sudan and allied militias. Minister Graham and Senator Wilson welcomed the Sudanese government's decision to investigate the matter, but insisted that such an investigation must be a credible effort that leads to stopping such inexcusable attacks on civilians.

"These attacks were carried out

NAIROBI, 1 March (IRIN) - A group of leading international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Friday called on the international and humanitarian communities to agree upon "clear and consistent disincentives" for warring parties who commit abuses against civilians and humanitarian aid agencies in Sudan.
"Precise benchmarks for action in both cases should be set and agreed upon by all the relevant international actors," according to the statement released by some 13 NGOs working in both north and south Sudan.

The NGOs urged the United Nations, European

CARE International has joined with other international aid agencies to urge governments and donors to condemn recent Government of Sudan attacks on civilians and humanitarian facilities in southern Sudan. Agencies state that these attacks are intolerable and demonstrate a disregard for the Geneva Convention, to which the Government of Sudan is a signatory.
Recent developments in the long-standing international conflict in the south have demonstrated clear grounds for concern:

NAIROBI, 28 February (IRIN) - Three British Christian development charities on Tuesday called on the United States and United Kingdom governments to take the necessary steps to convince all parties engaged in the Sudanese civil war to negotiate peace rather than continuing to pursue military options.
The call was made by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Christian Aid and Tearfund in advance of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum, "a conference of Sudan's religious leaders and their external friends", due to be held in London from 4-6 March.

Paving Roads for the Return of IDPs
Approximately 555,000 Ugandans have been displaced from their homes by the conflicts in southwestern and northern Uganda during the past sixteen years. Of these, approximately 47,000 have already returned home, primarily in Kitgum, with some 508,400 presently residing in and around protected villages/IDP camps on a full or part-time basis.

The Government of Sudan today (Thursday) renewed its appeal to all combatants in the Country's civil war to agree an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities as the only sure way to end the unnecessary suffering of Sudanese civilians.
'The escalation of the fighting of the SPLA and its allies can only heighten the risk of more civilian deaths and injuries,' Dr Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, President Omer Al-Basher's Special Peace Advisor, said.

'If John Garang is serious about peace he must now demonstrate his good faith by halting his offensive and coming

HIGHLIGHTS
- EWARN reviews provide lessons for further enhancing capacity building

- Refresher training offered to EWARN members and health workers

- EWARN partnership proved effective in detection, alert and response to meningitis and suspected VHF

- More polio immunization campaign (NIDs) carried out in southern Sudan

1.0. DISEASE SURVEILLANCE - AND EARLY WARNING AND RESPONSE NETWORK (EWARN)

1.1. Annual Progress Report Compiled

Activities in non-government controlled areas for 2001 focused on consolidating achievements in 2000. Based on

MONROVIA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A study in West Africa has revealed the widespread sexual exploitation of refugee children by aid workers and peacekeepers in exchange for supplies sent to save lives.

The scandal, details of which emerged on Tuesday, is the latest in a series involving sex and corruption to taint aid and peacekeeping operations on the world's poorest continent.

Below are some scandals in recent years:

1994

February - United Nations says investigation reveals that some peacekeeping troops in Mozambique paid for sex with children.

1997

The Sudanese government has been accused of violating a cease-fire it agreed with the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) mid-January for the country's region of Nuba Mountains.
In a statement issued in Nairobi Tuesday, the SPLA said this was the third time in a month that Khartoum had disrupted the truce that seeks to facilitate the ferrying of relief assistance to civilians in the Mountains located in Sudan's Southern Kordofan province. The two parties agreed to the cease-fire on January 19, in Switzerland, which was brokered by Swiss and American diplomats