Region | Sudan
French aid worker ordered to leave Sudan
A French aid worker said on Tuesday he had been ordered to leave a volatile region of Sudan after a misunderstanding with officials over security arrangements.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:41 March 11, 2008
Khartoum: A French aid worker said on Tuesday he had been ordered to leave a volatile region of Sudan after a misunderstanding with officials over security arrangements.
Jean-Jacques Franc de Ferriere, a project director with US-based Mercy Corps, said he was given one day's notice to leave the contested oil-producing area of Abyei, close to the border separating north and south Sudan.
He said state officials from the South Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (SSRRC), which monitors aid groups in the area, had falsely accused him of warning the country's health minister not to visit Abyei for security reasons.
Security
They also said he had put local lives at risk by driving along a road closed down after recent clashes, he added. De Ferriere said he drove on the road to show it was secure enough for the minister to use on his trip.
No one was immediately available for comment from the SSRRC's Abyei office.
"I am really outraged by the way they have done this," de Ferriere said. "They were frustrated that the minister wasn't coming and they wanted to put the blame on me.
Tensions
Tensions have worsened in the border region over the failure of the northern government and southern rebels to reach a deal to demarcate Abyei's borders, which were left undecided in the 2005 peace deal ending Sudan's 21-year north-south civil war.
Sudan's relations with France were strained earlier this month when a French soldier was killed in a clash with Sudanese troops near the border with Chad.
France condemned the killing as "deliberate and disproportionate".
Sudan later sought compensation from the European Union after four nomads were killed by one of the soldier's grenades when they tried to retrieve his body.
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