Sudan summons EU diplomat over statement on humanitarian needs

People walk to fill water containers at the Zamzam IDP camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), near El Fasher in North Darfur February 4, 2015. REUTERS/ Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's foreign ministry summoned the European Union's representative in Khartoum on Tuesday to complain about "false information" it said the EU had disseminated about the number of refugees and displaced people in the country. In a statement released on July 17, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, Christos Stylianides, said that the humanitarian situation in Sudan was getting worse and that an increasing number of refugees escaping South Sudan's civil war had exacerbated conditions. The EU announced a 4 million euro ($4.4 million) increase in humanitarian aid to Sudan, where it said that 5.4 million people in Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, the scene of insurgencies, were in "need of lifesaving aid." A foreign ministry official expressed to the EU representative his "outright rejection of the misleading and incorrect information" on the number of refugees and displaced people as well as the general humanitarian situation, the ministry said. The ministry did not say how many refugees and displaced people it believed there were in Sudan. ($1 = 0.9043 euros) (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy, Writing By Shadi Bushra, Editing by Robin Pomeroy)