All humanitarian flights from northern Kenya to strife-torn southern Sudan were grounded on Friday after Khartoum imposed a flight ban in the region following escalating fighting between government troops and rebels, a UN spokesman said in Nairobi.
”All flights are grounded as from this morning,” said Martin Dawes, representative for the UN-sponsored multi-agency aid group Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS).
He said Khartoum had informed OLS that its was banning flights over the two states of Western Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria for nine days starting on Friday.
Most OLS flights originate from the OLS relief base in the northwestern Kenyan town of Lokichoggio and have to overfly the two provinces to access an estimated three million people in need of relief aid in southern Sudan. – Sapa-AFP