Darfur displaced return to “live in fear” of militia
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Villagers returning to their homes in Sudan’s Darfur region are living in fear of the Arab militiamen who initially drove them away, the United Nations said in a report received by Reuters on Monday.
Sudan has about two weeks to prove to the U.N. Security Council it has made progress in improving Darfur’s security situation or face unspecified sanctions.
“A U.N. team reported on Aug. 12 that it found approximately 2,700 returnees in Sani Deleiba … that lived in fear due to heavy Janjaweed presence in the area,” the United Nations said in a weekly report on the situation in Darfur. Sani Deleiba in South Darfur state is one of the places which Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail designated on Sunday as a safe area.
Rights groups and rebels accuse Khartoum of arming the Arab militias known as Janjaweed – a term possibly derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback” – to loot and burn African farming villages as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
A top U.N. official in Sudan expressed concern on Sunday about the lack of progress in reining in the Janjaweed fighters in the area.
The world body says 50,000 people have been killed and 1 million displaced to camps since fighting broke out between the government and two main rebel groups in early 2003, triggering the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
About 200,000 refugees from Darfur are encamped in neighbouring Chad.
Few of the displaced have tried to go home, despite poor conditions in the camps and the government’s attempts to reassure them that they will be safe in their villages.
“IDPs (internally displaced people) continue to highlight protection concerns and to reiterate their unwillingness to return due to continuing Janjaweed attacks and continuing insecurity in some areas,” the U.N. report added.
Rwandan troops arrived in Darfur on Sunday as the first foreign force there, mandated to protect observers monitoring a shaky ceasefire between the government and the rebels.
The head of the AU ceasefire commission, Festus Okonkwo, said Nigerian soldiers would arrive in Darfur on Aug. 25 to complete the initial deployment of 308 troops.