Security and humanitarian situation are improving in Darfur – Sudan

December 19, 2009 (EL-FASHER) –Security and humanitarian situation the restive Darfur region are improving, said Sudanese officials in a conference on human rights held in El Fasher today.

“There is an obvious and positive change in Darfur in 2009 compared to previous year where Darfur conflict is now represented in three aspects including foreign interventions, personal ambitions for some rebel leaders and misleading media”, said North darfur governor Mohamed Yussef Kebir.

“Everything points to a progression, to an improvement in the human rights situation in Darfur,” told AFP Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Hassabo Mohamed Abdel-Rahman who affirmed at the conference that “Human rights is not a western theory but Islamic that has been called for by all divine laws.”

The two Sudanese officials were speaking at the Darfur international conference on human rights which organized by Sudanese rights group and the Al-Jazeera satellite television channel with the support of the Sudanese government.

Hassabo stressed that the improvement of the situation in Darfur can be measured by the voluntary return home of populations displaced by the six year conflict.
He said around 450,000 people — refugees who had been in neighbouring Chad, people living in camps in Darfur and others affected by the conflict — returned to their villages in 2009.

Since the expulsion of the 13 aid groups from the country following the ICC arrest warrant for the president Omer Al-Bashir, aid workers and displaced persons speak about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation on the ground.

Sudan repeatedly said it allowed some 15 new aid groups to work in Darfur but camps resident says no new aid group in the region.

Mahdi Qutbi, the head of organizations secretariat at the ruling National Congress party said today the current stage requires a different policy to the UN organizations and aid groups working in Darfur adding they should prioritize the return of IDPS to their areas, secure the villages and provide necessary services.

He warned that any organizations that do not respect the agreement signed with the government can be expelled as it was the case for other groups in the past.

(ST)