The Sudan Tribune reports the Sudanese government has issued a formal statement on reports regarding registration of new aid groups with names similar to those expelled last March.Initially the UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was quoted as saying that four of the expelled US based groups would return to Sudan under different names or different logos.
Later the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Holmes statements were misinterpreted and that these NGO’s “should not be characterized as returning NGOs”.
The groups include CARE, Save The Children, and Mercy Corps.
Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salah Al-Deen said that the move to register the new aid groups was part of an agreement with the US special envoy Scott Gration.
Al-Deen quoted portions of the agreement with Gration which stated that Khartoum would allow new NGO’s and would transfer blocked assets donated by USAID to them or existing organizations.
Furthermore, the local employees who worked for the expelled groups would be used by the new NGO’s.
The new groups would be registered in compliance with Sudanese laws, the statement said and “distance it from politicization”.
