Statement attributable to the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan a.i. , Mr Adnan Khan, on direct talks between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N)

KHARTOUM, Sudan, February 27, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Sudan a.i., Mr. Adnan Khan, has welcomed the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel's (AUHIP) invitation to the Sudanese Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N) to re-engage in direct talks on 28 February in Addis Ababa. Mr. Khan urges the Government and the SPLM-N to take immediate steps to ensure that humanitarian needs can be addressed while political dialogue continues.

“After almost three years of armed conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile there is an urgent and critical need to address the humanitarian situation in affected areas,” said Mr. Khan. “We cannot allow innocent civilians to continue to pay the price of war, or to make the provision of life-saving humanitarian assistance somehow conditional upon political progress. What we need now is for the fighting to stop and for the parties to ensure that humanitarian actors have safe, unhindered and immediate access, so that the needs of all who are suffering can be met,” he said.

Since fighting began in July 2011, some 1.2 million people have been either internally displaced or severely affected by the conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and nearly 240,000 people have sought refuge from the conflict in neighboring countries.