EU ambassadors concerned over closure of NGO's Sudan offices

(KHARTOUM) - European Union ambassadors on Wednesday expressed concern about the closure of the offices in Sudan of a UK-based Christian NGO that has worked in the country for more than a decade.

"The ambassadors of the resident EU embassies and Norway in Khartoum follow with great concern the reports of the closure of offices of Tearfund," the EU delegation in Khartoum said in a statement.

Sudanese authorities told Tearfund its seven offices across the country were closed until further notice on December 14 and then that they were permanently shut on January 12, the NGO said.

"We are in particular concerned since there has been no official communication from the Government of Sudan giving details about the reasons for this decision -- despite several recent requests from the EU and other donors," the ambassadors said.

Tearfund said its humanitarian aid reached 300,000 people in Sudan every year.

"We are deeply distressed by the impact the decision to close our services will have," a Tearfund spokesperson said.

It has about 200 staff in Sudan, mostly Sudanese nationals with a handful of foreign workers.

The NGO has been working in Sudan's war-hit western Darfur region since 2004, the year after the region erupted into conflict.

Ethnic insurgents launched the rebellion against President Omar al-Bashir complaining that Darfur was being economically and politically marginalised by his Arab-dominated regime.

Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 on war crimes charges over the campaign he launched to crush the rebels.

After his indictment, Khartoum decided to expel several NGOs from the region.

International and local NGOs in Sudan operate under close surveillance by the security forces.

Some 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur since 2003 and there are nearly 2.5 million people displaced by the unrest living in the region, according to the United Nations.