KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Surgical teams were deployed across Sudan as responders brace for a January vote on self-determination, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned.
Sudan is gearing up for a January referendum that is part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a simmering civil war in the troubled African nation.
Voter registration started Nov. 13 and runs through Dec. 1 in Sudan and eight other countries. U.N. authorities described the registration process as a "critical phase" in the 2005 peace agreement.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was teaming up with the area Red Crescent Society to expand the medical reach ahead of the vote.
"We have increased our presence on both sides of the north-south border and have pre-positioned stocks so that we can respond to any urgent needs for shelter, household items, water or sanitation," the aid group said in a statement. "We have also deployed a mobile surgical team that can either work in support of existing health facilities or treat weapon-wounded patients in remote areas with little or no access to such facilities."
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. special envoy to Sudan, said from Khartoum recently that he was worried conflict may erupt between rebel and pro-government forces.
For his part, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an early November message to U.N. Security Council said it was imperative that Sudanese authorities move forward as scheduled and in "an orderly fashion."
