UN concerned about new displacement in North Darfur

NAIROBI, Sep 8, 2004 (IRIN) — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is worried about the
humanitarian situation in North Darfur, after thousands of newly displaced
persons, reporting fresh hostilities, arrived in a camp near El Fasher, an
OCHA spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“We are very concerned that there are new IDP [internally displaced
persons] arrivals in Zam Zam camp,” Jennifer Abrahamson of OCHA Sudan,
told IRIN on Wednesday. “There have been unconfirmed reports of increased
insecurity around Thabit, south of the camp,” she added.

Zam Zam camp is near El-Fasher, administrative capital of North Darfur
State.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a situation
report on Wednesday that continuing clashes, in particular in rural areas
of northern and southern Darfur, had given rise to further casualties and
displacement of civilians.

It said the number of IDPs in Gereida, south of Nyala, was estimated to
have increased from 12,000 to 32,000 since mid-August, while a recent
influx of people in towns east of Nyala had reportedly led to serious food
shortages. Around 1,800 new arrivals had been reported at Zam Zam camp,
the ICRC added.

On Wednesday, the UN said in a humanitarian update that its refugee
agency, UNHCR, and the Norwegian Refugee Council were following reports
that a large number of new IDPs had also arrived in Kalma camp from Yassin
area, southeast of Nyala.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement issued on Tuesday
that the continuing insecurity had reduced the number of people it could
reach in Darfur. It said banditry had intensified in August.

In New York, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said the Security
Council could take action on the Darfur crisis within the next weeks,
stressing that “more can and should be done” to improve security in the
war-torn region, and urging international support for the African monitors
deployed there.

Talking to reporters, Annan said while improvement on granting
humanitarian access to Darfur had occurred, security problems persisted,
UN News reported on Wednesday. He added that Khartoum “must redouble its
efforts to protect the population” of an estimated 1.2 million IDPs.

“Obviously the situation on the ground could be better. We are not
satisfied with the security front. We believe that more can and should be
done,” UN News quoted Annan as saying.

He called for an expansion of the force of African Union (AU) monitors
from its original “woefully inadequate” number, to better protect the IDPs
and to restore security. “I hope the international community will support
them [the AU monitoring force] financially, logistically and also in other
ways,” he said.

Annan held meetings with Sadiq El Mahdi, a former Sudanese prime minister,
and John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A), about the situation in Darfur and peace talks in the town of
Naivasha, Kenya, aimed at ending civil war in southern Sudan.

Talks between the Sudanese government and SPLM/A in Naivasha led to the
signing on 26 May of three protocols on major stumbling blocks to a peace
agreement, including power-sharing and areas contested by Khartoum and the
rebels.

The talks were adjourned in July, but no date has been set for their
resumption. The two sides still need to agree on a comprehensive peace
agreement, a permanent ceasefire and the modalities for implementing the
former, including regional and international guarantees.