Sudan’s Darfur region still insecure: UN

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15, 2004 (UN News Centre) — The United Nations mission in Sudan said today that the troubled Darfur region remained wracked by insecurity.

A Sudanese policeman secures the Kalma camp near Nyala in south Darfur October 9, 2004. (Reuters).

Citing the African Union (AU), the mission said attacks in South Darfur continued last Thursday and Friday. On Sunday, the AU investigated a series of tribal clashes in three villages.

Meanwhile, the UN mission said it also received complaints from North and West Darfur.

In the North, agencies operating around Zam Zam camp reported an enhanced presence of armed tribesmen around the camp, the mission said, adding that it also received reports of increasing pressure on refugees in El-Geneina camps in the West to return home.

Leaders of the internally-displaced refugees in El-Geneina said they were told that they must return to their villages, otherwise they would not receive ration cards, the UN mission said, citing aid agencies operating close to the camps.

At a press conference last week, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, emphasized that relocations should be carried out with respect for international humanitarian law and human rights. He encouraged the Sudanese Government to devise criteria to determine camp locations.