Save the Children asked to suspend ops in Sudan

For immediate release
6 March 2009

The Save the Children Alliance, which represents 27 independent Save the Children agencies operating in more than 120 countries worldwide, issued the following statement today on recent developments in Sudan.

"Save the Children USA and Save the Children UK have received letters from the Sudanese authorities asking them to suspend operations in Sudan. This has very worrying implications for the more than 1 million children and families that the two agencies are currently supporting in West Darfur, North Kordofan, South Kordofan and Red Sea States and communities in Abyei and near Khartoum," said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Secretary General, International Save the Children Alliance.

"Save the Children USA and Save the Children UK are providing essential support to children and their families including food, clean water, nutritional interventions, basic and reproductive health care, protection and education programs for children and women in camps and communities throughout Sudan. We don't know what the outcome of these developments will be, but we do know that if we are forced to stop our work the lives of hundreds of thousands of children could be at risk."

ENDS

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