Sudanese government expels two senior UNDP officials

The Sudanese government has reportedly ordered two senior United Nations officials to leave the African country.

Media outlets identified the officials as UN Resident Coordinator at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Ali al-Za’tari and Yvonne Helle, the UNDP’s country director in Sudan.

The reason for the expulsions was not immediately clear. The UNDP and Sudanese Foreign Ministry have still not commented on the expulsions.

Some media reports say Helle has been told to leave Sudan by December 29 and Za’tari would depart by January 2, 2015.

Za’tari, a Jordanian national, has been in Sudan for nearly two years, and Helle, who is from the Netherlands, has spent about a year heading the UNDP’s office in the African country.

The expulsions come as Sudan’s government is locked in a dispute with the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID.

The developments also come nearly a month after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir described peacekeepers from UNAMID “as a security burden.”

The Sudanese government has already shut UNAMID’s human rights office in the capital city of Khartoum and called on the mission to prepare an exit plan.

According to official reports, 61 peacekeepers have been killed since the beginning of UNAMID mission in Darfur in 2007.

Darfur has been the scene of violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum. There has been also tribal fighting in the region.

The United Nations estimates that more than 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the violence began.

Sudan accuses South Sudan, which seceded from the Republic of Sudan in July 2011, of supporting anti-government rebels operating in the Darfur region and the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.