Sudan defends move to relocate Darfur’s displaced
KHARTOUM, Nov 4 (AFP) — The Sudanese government defended Thursday a controversial decision to forcibly relocate thousands of refugees in the war-torn Darfur region in the face of international condemnation.
The humanitarian affairs ministry said the move was aimed at avoiding the spread of disease and improving security in the camps in Darfur sheltering hundreds of thousands of people forced out of their homes by the conflict.
A UN mission in Sudan said Wednesday that government forces had helped eject between 6,000 and 8,000 people from a camp on the edge of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.
“What happened in Nyala on Tuesday was not a voluntary repatriation but was, rather, a change of one site to a better one long prepared and arranged by the state authorities and the organizations operating in the state,” the Sudanese ministry said.
The French-based Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) reported similar incidents on Tuesday, saying security forces had “encircled and emptied” a Darfur refugee camp that housed hundreds of displaced persons.
Police also “fired shots into the air to disperse the refugees who opposed the relocation and at the current time a large part of the camp occupants are without shelter,” it said.
The government in Khartoum claimed it moved the people for fear of the random expansion of settlements that it said had the potential to spread disease.
It argued that the “relocation was intended to ward off the spread of shanty camps that threatens the health and security in a city inhabited by more than 1.2 million people.
“Arrangements for protection of the displaced persons and for finding them shelter are the responsibility of the authorities of the state which do not wait for instructions or approvals by other authorities,” it added.
The US State Department said the action was in “direct contravention” of UN principles regarding internally displaced people and a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that threaten sanctions on Khartoum unless it eases the deteriorating security situation in Darfur.
Since February last year, Sudan’s three western Darfur provinces have been embroiled in a conflict pitting two rebel movements against government forces and Khartoum’s proxy Arab militias.
Some 70,000 people have died and 1.5 million people have been forced from their homes in what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.