Jan Pronk, the United Nation’s special envoy to Sudan, is expected to leave the country shortly after being ordered out by the Sudanese authorities. Pronk, a former Dutch environment and aid minister with a reputation for being forthright, wrote in his online diary (blog) that Sudan’s army had suffered heavy defeats and morale was low.

The Sudanese government has reportedly given him until Wednesday to leave, but he has already been recalled to New York by Kofi Annan. The BBC reports that Pronk’s website is well-known to officials and he has been repeatedly asked to shut it down.
More than 200,000 people are said to have died and two-million displaced as a result of the conflict in Darfur. Sudan has repeatedly refused to allow UN peacekeepers on its soil.
Dutch aid minister Agnes van Ardenne told BNR Nieuwsradio that great efforts were being made to keep Pronk in Sudan. ‘We need him there,’ she said. A great deal of work was being done in the war torn country under the UN leadership, she said. ‘We cannot do that without Pronk or until a successor has been found.’ Pronk had been due to leave Sudan next year.