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M. Continuo

U.N. seeks urgent access to Darfur bombing victims


    By Opheera McDoom

    KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The top U.N. humanitarian official inSudan on Tuesday called for immediate access to those woundedin a government bombing attack on a school and busy marketplacein North Darfur, which killed 12 people.

    Around 30 wounded, mostly women and children, have beenwaiting for help since the bomb attack on Sunday. No help hasarrived because of logistical difficulties and denial of accessby authorities, according to witnesses and aid sources.

    The attack killed 12, including six children, a teacher atthe school told Reuters by telephone. Earlier reports hadfigures of 13 killed.

    "I am deeply perturbed by the reported bombings of aschool, water installations and a market where civilians,especially women and children are present," Sudan's U.N.Humanitarian Coordinator Ameerah Haq said in a statement.

    "It is essential that we have immediate humanitarian accessto the affected populations in order to provide humanitarianassistance and medical evacuation."

    Haq is in Norway where donor nations are meeting Sudaneseofficials to pledge money to rebuild Sudan after decades ofmultiple civil wars.

    Mokhtar Mohamed, a teacher at the school in Shegeg Karo,said they had been told many times that U.N. planes were comingto evacuate the wounded but no help had arrived late onTuesday.

    "They said the government had stopped any planes coming toShegeg Karo this morning," he said.

    One aid source in Darfur also told Reuters that thegovernment had not allowed planes to fly in on Tuesday. Sudan'sarmy did not answer calls seeking comment.

    If the death toll from the attack is confirmed, it would bethe single most deadly bombing raid in many years in Darfur.

    The U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) urged the parties tothe conflict to take all necessary measures to protectchildren.

    "Children are to be afforded special protection duringmilitary operations and ...every effort must be made to ensurethat schools, health centres...are considered as zones ofpeace, UNICEF said in a statement on the bombing raids.

    Medical care even in the state capitals of Darfur is basicand it is practically non-existent in remote rural areas likeShegeg Karo.

    International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and2.5 million driven from their homes in five years of revolt inDarfur. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term Khartoumrejects and European governments are reluctant to use.

    Sudan blames the Western media for exaggerating theconflict and puts the death toll at about 10,000.

    (Editing by Keith Weir)