The donors on the executive board expressed pretty serious concern about the operating conditions that were on offer and gave us a mandate to try and better them.

Part of the problem is with our monitoring people moving around the country, ... This is and has been a concern for them.

Our view is that, yes, the humanitarian situation in the North has improved, but not to the extent to which the country can do without humanitarian aid.

Their were 25 pupils and only three of them has any meat in the last month. Very occasionally an egg, a little bit of vegetable and that's it.

They asked us to go back to the government and seek better conditions. We will not resume until we have a satisfactory set of operating conditions agreed with the government.

We're the honest broker in the middle, and we'll try to achieve a solution that's satisfactory to both sides. We hope that some donors will support development aid in 2006 and beyond.