VZCZCXRO6633
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0937/01 1081536
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181536Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2399
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHNJ/AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA 0036
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0053
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC 0074
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 0174

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000937 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/SPG, PRM, AND ALSO PASS USAID/W 
USAID FOR SUDAN TASK FORCE, AF/EA, DCHA 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA AND USAID/REDSO 
ROME FOR FODAG 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
NSC FOR JMELINE 
USUN FOR TMALY 
BRUSSELS FOR PLERNER 
ABUJA PLEASE PASS C. HUME 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PHUM PINS EAID KAWC SU
SUBJECT: Sudan - Visit to Port Sudan 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  Humanitarian conditions in Red Sea State have not 
changed much since 2005, when USAID last made an 
extensive visit to this northern state to visit programs 
in Mohammed Qol and areas north of Port Sudan.  The GNU 
continues to limit humanitarian staff visits to the area, 
and now requires all humanitarian workers, including 
local staff, to obtain travel permits before going 
outside Port Sudan.  Despite limitations, WFP is 
expanding its beneficiaries and shifting from general 
distributions to food for recovery, food for education 
and other development oriented purposes.  A conference is 
planned for April 30 - May 1 with donors, UN agencies, 
NGOs, civil society, and the government to map out a 
recover/development program for the eastern region 
generally. 
 
---------------------- 
Humanitarian Situation 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  USAID visited Port Sudan April 8-9, 2006, for a quick 
update on the humanitarian situation.  Since 2005, 
working conditions for humanitarian workers in Red Sea 
State (RSS) have deteriorated.  Humanitarian space is 
more closed than before, with GNU security officials 
requiring travel permits even for well known local 
organizations such as SOS Sahel and ACCORD to leave the 
city.  OXFAM, which has worked in RSS for over 20 years, 
has been blocked when trying to bring in technical 
expatriate expertise to assist with their livelihoods and 
food security programming.  More recently, the GNU has 
questioned the application of the SOFA (status of forces) 
agreement to UN agencies and has consequently blocked all 
UN staff from traveling outside Port Sudan without a 
travel permit.  The SOFA, a bilateral agreement between 
the Sudanese government and UNMIS, is designed to allow 
unimpeded access for UN agencies to perform humanitarian 
activities.  The UN on principle, is refusing to adhere 
to this, hence all staff are grounded. 
 
¶3.  Despite these challenges, the UN and its partners in 
Red Sea State are attempting to expand the reach of 
programs, and through persistence and dialogue with 
authorities have made some progress.  IRC, recipient last 
year of a USD 2 million grant from USAID for eastern 
Sudan, has only in the last month received permission to 
begin project activities in the Tokar Delta.  WFP, 
although not permitted to travel outside Port Sudan due 
to the SOFA issued noted above, has made some adjustments 
in their program in response to the May 2005 TANGO 
report, which provided critical information on the 
livelihoods of people in the East.  Significantly, there 
is no general food distribution this year, but rather all 
food programmed is linked to community activities (food 
for recovery) or health (food for TB patients) or 
education (school feeding).  Of particular note is the 
increase this year from 25,000 to 35,000 of the number of 
children in school feeding in the state with emphasis on 
girls education. 
 
¶4.  A USAID grant to IRC that began in 2005, in which 
three local organizations benefited from sub-grants, will 
end in April 2006.  The grantees, ACCORD, SOS Sahel, and 
Sudanese Red Crescent, all express the desire to continue 
the work in micro-finance, farming, re-stocking, and 
water harvesting in the northern zones of the state 
(Sinkat and Hileib).  Although implementation of programs 
is challenged by travel restrictions noted above, the 
NGOS have formed village committees, including women's 
committees, and have made progress in helping diversity 
rural livelihoods.  In Rural Port Sudan and Tokar, IRC is 
rehabilitating health centers and supporting grass roots 
 
KHARTOUM 00000937  002 OF 002 
 
 
projects, such as water reservoirs, that are identified 
by the communities. USAID visited with a community group 
that expressed strong pleasure and pride in the work they 
had achieved with IRC support.  As state support to rural 
areas has yet to be visible, these modest NGO-led 
initiatives remain a critical element for change in the 
east, but need to be bolstered by more seriously 
coordinated and funded interventions. 
 
¶5.  In this vein, the UN, in collaboration with 
government and international and national NGOs working in 
the East, will host a conference on development 
challenges in the East at the end of April or early May 
in Port Sudan.  The conference will point out that while 
international assistance has flowed to the East for the 
past decades, interventions have been short term and 
emergency focused, although not addressing the root 
causes of conflict.  The goal of the conference is to 
"develop a common vision and commitment for coordinated 
strategies between international development actors, 
local civil society organizations and the two state 
governments (RSS and Kassala) to begin the process of 
achieving meaningful change in poverty reduction and 
conflict transformation in the Red Sea and Kassala 
States."  Expected outputs of the conference include: (a) 
a shared knowledge of past failures and successes of 
interventions for poverty and conflict resolution in the 
Red Sea and Kassala States; (b) a planned vision for 
strategic coordinated activities to address priority 
issues for poverty reduction and conflict transformation; 
(c) increased commitment to recovery and development 
initiatives in the Red Sea and Kassala States on the part 
of donors. 
 
STEINFELD