In the run-up to Sudan’s referendum in January on the possible secession of the south, European Union humanitarian chief Kristalina Georgieva sees the conflict-torn African state as “an easily predictable [humanitarian] challenge,” in 2011.
The bloc is hoping for the best but is also bracing for the worst that could happen following the referendum, according to Georgieva.
“While we hope for the best, we must be prepared for anything than could happen, in the South, but also in other parts of the country, and especially in the North-South border areas, in Darfur, and in East Sudan,” she writes in a blog published in the EU’s website.
Georgieva says she hopes the delivery of humanitarian aid, which is already “extremely difficult” in some parts of Sudan, will not be made even more difficult after the referendum. She also calls for the increased security of humanitarian workers in the African state.
“Sudan will stay on our radars, probably long after the January referendum. We, Europeans, must be prepared to continue the efforts to end this wretched drama, which does not belong to 2011, to the 21st Century, to a world where a better hope must be within our reach,” Georgieva notes.
