Sudan postpones expulsion of aid agencies

Sudan has stated that decision to expel the heads of two aid agencies is administrative and will be postponed. The expulsion decision includes the country heads of two British aid agencies on Monday, citing administrative difficulties and humanitarian grounds, the state minister for humanitarian affairs said.

Muhammad Yusuf Abd Allah said the decision to expel "Save The Children" and "Oxfam" country heads for breaches of Sudanese law had been delayed until after he returned from a trip to Europe in four or five days.

"We will postpone it until I come back," Abd Allah said. "This is an administrative decision which we did not realise all the implications of." He also said the organizations were still waiting for notice for what the ministry had said was interfering in political issues, forbidden by Sudanese law governing emergency aid agencies working in the country.

Save the Children is one of the largest food distributors in Darfur. It confirmed it received two letters from the ministry on Monday morning, expelling its country director Kate Halff and officially warning the organization, according to news reports.

The British charity Oxfam said it received a letter of warning, suggesting their country director might be expelled.

A Sudanese ministry statement said Save The Children had broken Sudanese law by issuing a press release saying a government plane had dropped a bomb close to one of its feeding centers last week in Tawilla town, north Darfur, without waiting for confirmation from African Union ceasefire monitors.