Norwegian group to return to Darfur
May 19, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Authorities in Sudan’s strife-hit Darfur region have agreed to allow a Norwegian aid group to resume its role overseeing the area’s biggest refugee camp, UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland said Friday.
Briefing the UN Security Council on his visit to Sudan and Chad last week, Egeland said he had met the governor of South Darfur who agreed that the Norwegian Refugee Council could return to the Kalma camp.
Egeland, a Norwegian who is UN assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha had confirmed the decision.
Early last month, Sudanese authorities decided not to extend the mandate of NRC, which directs the Kalma refugee camp sheltering some 100,000 people.
“The speedy return of NRC will help not only to lower tensions in what has been the largest and most volatile camp in Darfur, but also allow much needed preparations for the approaching rainy season to start,” Egeland said.
He said the preparations were crucial to avert epidemics, flooding and the destruction of infrastructure.
An African Union-brokered peace deal was signed in Abuja, Nigeria on May 5 by the Khartoum government and the main Darfur rebel movement to end three years of civil war which have claimed an estimated 300,000 lives in the impoverished western region.
The conflict erupted in February 2003 when rebels from minority tribes rose up against the central government in Khartoum, prompting a heavy-handed crackdown by troops and proxy Arab militia called Janjaweed.
(ST)