Airdrop Being Readied for 400,000 Sudanese

NAIROBI, Kenya —  International relief agencies said Monday they are trying to arrange an airdrop of food to 400,000 Sudanese refugees driven out of Ethiopia into a swamp, where they are being bombed by Sudan’s air force.

Relief workers said the refugees were chased out of their camps near Gambela in southwestern Ethiopia by guerrillas of the Oromo Liberation Front, an ally of the mainstream rebel movement that captured Addis Ababa last week.

But the relief agencies said the military government in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, will have to approve the operation before it can begin.

The U.N. World Food Program, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Lutheran World Federation said they are putting planes on standby to drop sacks of grain and other supplies to the refugees at low altitude.