Khartoum state to relocate IDPs

Feb 17, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Khartoum State Governor, Abdul Haleem Mutafi, announced recently that the internally displaced persons, (IDP’s), living around Khartoum will be relocated to al-Sundous Square, 45 kilometres south of Khartoum.

Speaking to journalists early this week, United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA), senior official Mike Mcdonough said discussions are going on regarding the relocation of IDP’s, so that the process is carried out peacefully and with dignity.

He said Khartoum State Interagency Forum, in collaboration with UN agencies, is keenly following up the issue. Khartoum State says it will allocate 11 thousand plots of land to the IDP’s.

On 18 May 2005, several people were killed, 14 police officers, 6 civilians including two children and several others were wounded when violence broke out in Soba Internally Displaced Camp (IDP), with a population of 10, 000 people in Southern Khartoum.

The IDPs initiated the violence by attacking the police because they thought they come to relocate the camps.

In the later half of 2004, government security forces undertook a campaign to demolish Dar Salaam (Peace) IDP Camp, housing 120,000 displaced persons; they bulldozed all structures including homes, schools, clinics and latrines as part a larger area-replanning programme.

Also, on 17 August 2005 Shikan camp residents have been arbitrarily relocated to camps without their consent, where they are deprived of fundamental human rights – including the right to health care and education.

The displaced are located in areas lacking the most basic means of survival and all essential services. Water, healthcare, and educational facilities are non-existent as the location is no more than a patch of desert.

(SRS/ST)