SUDAN - Red Cross says Sudan clinic attacked by militia

["Nadia & Giovanni" <nadia.joe@tiscalinet.it>]

Red Cross says Sudan clinic attacked by militia

NAIROBI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Hundreds of horseback militia
have looted a Red Cross clinic in an attack on a rebel-held
village in southern Sudan, a spokesman for the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday.

The Arab militia known as Murahaleen, loyal to the
government, attacked the village of Chelkou in the far north of
Bahr el Ghazal province on January 12, the ICRC's Nairobi-based
spokesman Michael Kleiner told Reuters.

He said almost everything in the ICRC compound was looted,
tents were destroyed and a vehicle burned. The clinic was manned
by local staff after expatriate medical workers were evacuated
in September due to deteriorating security.

"We understand that our local staff were not affected. But
there were certainly casualties in the village," he said.

Sudanese rebels have been fighting the Khartoum government
since 1983 for greater autonomy for the mainly Christian and
animist south.

An estimated two million people have died in the war and the
famines it has caused. Last week's attack took place close to
the border between north and south -- an area of frequent raids
by government-backed militia.

The village of Chelkou was bombed by government aircraft
last July, when one bomb damaged an ICRC aircraft parked on the
airstrip.

Kleiner said the ICRC would make representations to the
Sudanese government to seek security guarantees for its staff
working in the area.

"We are very worried for the civilian population and we are
trying are best to continue to assist them, but we need to know
our staff are safe," he said.



_______________________
Perciò, ecco, la attirerò a me,
la condurrò nel deserto
e parlerò al suo cuore.
Le renderò le sue vigne
e trasformerò la valle di Acòr
in porta di speranza.
Là canterà
come nei giorni della sua giovinezza,
come quando uscì dal paese d'Egitto.
 - Osea 2,16.17 -