On Wednesday, U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric announced that the Sudanese government had seized 190 cargo containers containing food rations and operational supplies for peacekeepers in Darfur. Despite this announcement, on Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced that Amira Gornass, Sudan’s Ambassador to U.N.-based agencies in Rome, will serve as the next Chairperson to the FAO’s influential Committee on Food Security. That an official from a government that will not allow peacekeepers to receive food rations and which refuses humanitarian assistance, including food, for vulnerable populations facing aerial bombardment will now head food security concerns for the FAO is a deeply troubling outcome.
A Reuters article quotes a western diplomat as saying,
"It's completely outrageous that in the same week we find out the Sudanese government has been blocking food supplies to peacekeepers, that they would even consider putting forward a candidate for the committee on world food security."
This announcement also comes the same week as World Food Day—a day that celebrates the creation of the FAO and serves as a day of action against hunger—and only adds to the inappropriateness and absurdity of this decision.
Click here to the read the Reuters article.