Aid groups support spontaneous return in Darfur

October 19, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — Humanitarian groups delivered this week shelter materials to some hundreds of returnees in West Darfur state, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a reported released this week.

West Darfur state seems one of the states that are benefiting from the political rapprochement between Khartoum and Ndjamena and the establishment of joint security patrols on the common border.

The diminution of armed clashes between the government forces and rebel groups encouraged people displaced by the nine year conflict to return spontaneously to their villages despite the persistence of banditry activities.

Around 900 persons in Anjim village in El Geneina locality, West Darfur State this week received shelters material distributed by Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

OCHA further said in its weekly report that some 4,000 people already returned to the village from different IDPs camps between March and September 2011.

The Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) in West Darfur says some 80,000 people have regained their villages in the state where there are 21 IDPs camps hosting 314,000 displaced people.

Darfur Regional Authority plans to hold next November a conference on the voluntary return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. It also plans to get substantial financial support to the various rehabilitation and development projects in a donors conference to be held in Doha next December.

Despite the signing of a peace frame text by with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), the government did not yet deliver money to start the implementation of recovery projects needed before the IDPs return their villages.

In Khartoum, the commission of refugees announced on Thursday that a tripartite agreement on the return of Sudanese refugees in Chad will be signed between the two governments and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 5 November.

Sudan’s refugees commissioner, Mohamed El-Gizouli, stated that the Sudanese government is committed to create conducive environment; rehabilitate the villages and provide basic services for the returnees.

He added, in statements reported by the government sponsored SMC, that Chad will participate in the voluntary return conference and the regional authority will be involved in the return of refugees from Chad.

(ST)