Sudan to open up agitated west to relief groups

Sunday February 8th, 2004.

KHARTOUM, Feb 8 (AFP) -- The Sudanese government Sunday announced it would open up roads next week to allow humanitarian organisations to send relief to people suffering from the war in the western Darfur region.

The ministry of humanitarian affairs said routes would be opened in the region as of February 16 to help relief groups deliver supplies to the needy.

UN officials have complained that Khartoum has been slow to grant them travel permits to a region that is already remote and dangerous to travel in.

Some 670,000 have also been displaced within Sudan itself by the war pitting government troops and their Arab militia allies against rebels drawn mainly from the region's non-Arab minorities.

Another 100,000 Sudanese are estimated to have fled across the border into Chad because of the rebellion that erupted a year ago over the Darfur region's alleged economic neglect by the government.

Meanwhile, the governor of North Darfur state Osman Yousuf Kibir declared an amnesty for any children who leave the ranks of the rebel movement fighting government forces in Darfur, the independent Al Rai Al Aam daily said.

"The children might have been abducted or lured into joining the rebels and therefore any one of them who deserts the rebels will be pardoned and no legal action will be taken against him," Kibir was quoted as saying.

There were no independent reports of use of child soldiers by the rebels that might have prompted the amnesty.

The governor was reported to have called upon the UN Children's Fund UNICEF to help rehabilitate children coming from rebel ranks.