IDP’s accuse HAC of preventing distribution of assistance in S. Darfur

May 9, 2015 (NYALA) – The deputy secretary general of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees union in Darfur, Adam Abdalla Gamhouri, has accused the government Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) in South Darfur state of impeding distribution of foodstuff and sheltering materials to the IDP’s.

IDP’s in Kalma camp, 7 km east of South Darfur state capital, Nyala suffer from severe lack of foodstuffs and potable water due to the delay caused by aid groups in distributing food and breakdown of most water sources around the camp.

Gamhouri told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that IDPs are living in extremely inhumane conditions due to delay in the distribution of food quotas for 40 days, pointing that the IDP’s have been severely affected by the World Food Programme’s (WFP) decision to decrease its assistance by 50% .

He accused the national humanitarian body in South Darfur of exercising pressure on the remaining foreign aid groups in order to deny IDPs access to relief assistance, saying they seek to carry out the voluntary return programme by forcing camps’ residents to return to their homes.

Gamhouri added that IDPs are usually attacked by armed militia who do not want them to return to their villages.

HAC officials were not available for comment.

He stressed that new IDPs arrive in Darfur camps on daily basis, adding camps are in dire need for plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets and malaria medications to meet the needs of the rainy season.

Ghamhouri urged national and international aid groups to provide plastic sheets, mosquito nets and life saving drugs. He said IDP’s suffer most from water pools around the camps which serve as breeding ground for the mosquitoes during the rainy season.

He pointed that 60% of the IDP’s are living in the open without shelter, demanding swift intervention to provide the necessary help for the affected.

Sudanese government officials say the establishment of IDPs camps in Darfur was a fault they would not repeat again, pointing that the camps allow rebels to instrumentalise the camps’ residents to serve their political agenda.

According to the latest estimations by United Nations agencies, camps in Darfur houses 2,500,000 IDPs since eruption of the conflict the rebel groups in 2003.

Immediately after the first arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudan’s president Omer al-Bashir in March 2009, Sudan expelled 13 aid groups from Darfur accusing them of collaborating with the war crime courts.

Since then, the Sudanese government intensified its crackdown on foreign aid agencies.

Last December, HAC expressed intentions of full “Sudanisation” of humanitarian work in South Darfur state at the expense of foreign aid groups.

(ST)