Fleeing Sudanese in Darfur start flocking home: reports

CAIRO, July 16, 2004 (Xinhua) — Sudanese fled the restive Darfur region have started flocking home following central government’s efforts to return stability in the western region, reports reaching here from Khartoum said on Friday.

The government has already started bringing home up to 34,000 refugees from Darfur and the returnees let out a sigh of relief, expressing a keen desire to go home, Sudanese sources were quoted as saying.

On Thursday night, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mostafa Othman Ismail presided over a meeting of an ad hoc task force set up by Khartoum and the United Nations and reviewed a joint three-month action plan to stabilize Darfur.

Representatives from donor states and UN organizations also attended the meeting.

The Sudanese government is holding talks with the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Movement for Justice and Equality, two main rebel groups in Darfur, in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union.

The rebel groups took up arms against the government in February 2003 due to what they claimed that their region was neglected by the successive Sudanese governments.

The Sudanese government has been under mounting pressure to end the conflict in Darfur, which has left about 10,000 people dead.