Suspended in Sudan – the view from the news team
Thursday 5 March 2009
The first I heard about the situation in Sudan was late yesterday afternoon. Our head of news received word that the Sudanese Government was asking some aid agencies, including Save the Children UK, to suspend our operations.
That triggered a flurry of activity as we tried to establish the truth of what was going on. Bad phone lines to Sudan meant it was very difficult to work out exactly what had happened, and we always need to make sure that what we are saying to journalists is accurate.
Sarah, our head of news, managed to get through to our team in Khartoum and also spoke to our International Operations team in London. They established that Save the Children UK had indeed received a letter asking us to stop our work.
At that point the first priority was to put out a statement clarifying our position and expressing how serious this is for children in Sudan.
Save the Children UK is supporting 50,000 of the most vulnerable children in Sudan. We are working in the big camps outside Khartoum where thousands of families are living in extremely difficult conditions. Many of the children living there have been through traumatic experiences – some have fled the violence in Darfur, others have been there for years having fled fighting in the south of Sudan. We are determined to continue to help them.
Next came the phone calls. As the news spread, large numbers of journalists wanted more information. Some just wanted to confirm that we had indeed been asked to stop work, others wanted interviews. I don’t think Sarah, who was manning the phones last night, got very much sleep.
Today we are working to tell as many people as possible about our work in Sudan, and make sure everyone knows how serious it would be for children if we are prevented from doing it. We are all waiting to see how this situation develops.
Tags: darfur, displaced people, khartoum
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March 10th, 2009 at 7:12 AM
I feel sorry for the children in Sudan.I work with Sudan Radio Service – Kenya and i would like to know of any developments.