UNAMID top official visits Kalma camp in South Darfur
October 19, 2008 (EL FASHER) – The head of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur spent Saturday and Sunday at a large internally displaced persons (IDP) camp outside of Nyala, the capital South Darfur.
Rodolphe Adada, the joint special representative of the African Union-United Nations hybrid peacekeeping force (UNAMID), met with IDP representatives in an effort to strengthen contacts, according to UNAMID.
Adada was accompanied by the deputy mission commander, Major General Emmanuel Karake Karenzi, and Police Commissioner Michael Fryer.
During his visit to South Darfur, the UNAMID leader met with the Governor Ali Mahmoud Mohammed.
The joint representative also travelled to the UNAMID “supercamp” in Nyala, where he paid a visit to the Chinese Engineering Company and commissioned the first drinkable water bore-hole drilled by the company as part of a program designed to meet the water needs in the area.
The 172 Chinese engineering staff arrived in Nyala in August, bringing the total number of Chinese forces in Darfur to 315. Their primary task has been preparing the base in Nyala to receive additional troop deployments.
China was the first non-African nation to fulfill its deployment commitments in Darfur, but its peacekeepers were also rejected by rebel groups due to China’s staunch military, economic and diplomatic support for Sudan’s government.
The Chinese company of engineers includes bridge and road-building detachments, construction and installation units, maintenance and support teams, and well-drilling specialists.
Thirty-seven people died in an attack on Kalma camp on Aug. 25, by one estimate. Sixty-five people with gunshot wounds arrived at a Doctors Without Borders clinic on the day of the attack. Three girls who ventured from the camp disappeared in September, according to a UNAMID patrol.
A helicopter crashed outside of the camp on Sept. 29, fueling government accusations that the camp is used by rebels to stockpile weapons.
In response to these events, UNAMID reinforced the formed police unit in Kalma with a military contingent in early October, and the mission began to conduct night patrols.
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