Sudanese authorities have expelled two senior UNPD officials from Khartoum. There has not been an official explanation for the expulsion.

The UNDP and Sudanese Foreign Ministry have not yet commented on the expulsions.

The officials who have been expelled are the Resident Coordinator at the United Nations Development Program, Ali al-Za’tari and Yvonne Helle, the UNDP’s country director in Sudan.

Media reports say Helle has been told to leave Sudan on Monday next week, and Za’tari would leave the country on the 2^nd of January.

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 U-N-D-P’s office in Sudan.

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 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.