§ Mr. Burtasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has received any request for aid from the Government of Sudan due to the current drought; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RaisonThe Sudan Government have appealed generally for drought relief aid. The Sudanese ambassador in London has asked specifically for help for refugees arriving in the country.
We are now shipping 11,750 tonnes of wheat flour which will be sold by the UN High Commission for Refugees to provide funds for its refugee programme there. We have also asked the high commissioner for a full report to allow us to consider the Sudan Government's latest request.
Much is being done by the voluntary agencies. I expect to approve within the next few days the allocation of £1 million over four years for a refugee agricultural development scheme in the eastern Sudan. We have just agreed to provide £100,000 to the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development for food transport and emergency feeding to support a Save the Children Fund nutrition team to help coordinate the feeding of new refugees and existing refugee camps; and to contribute to the cost of a logistics team from the same agency to help transport and distribute food in Kordofan and Darfur provinces. We shall continue to monitor the possible need for further help.