Sudanese leave refugee camps

2004-06-28 20:18

Khartoum - At least 3 000 Sudanese who fled fighting in the troubled Darfur region several months ago have left makeshift camps and returned to their homes around Al-Fashir, a state newspaper said on Monday.

The Al-Anbaa report appeared less than 72 hours before US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN chief Kofi Annan are due to visit Al-Fashir, in North Darfur state, on a trip to pressure Khartoum to resolve the war raging there.

Both Powell and Annan are scheduled to tour camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Al-Fashir that Al-Anbaa said are now being voluntarily evacuated by their inhabitants wanting to resume normal lives at home.

The first batch has already "arrived at their villages in Touweila, south of Al-Fashir," said the newspaper.

Soliman Abdallah Adam, governor of Geneina, the capital of war-torn West Darfur state, has said all of them should be out of the camps by the end of August, when the rainy season is likely to make movement difficult.

Local officials have started to distribute 5 000 bags of grain to the returning IDPs and are doing everything to help them resettle, as they assess the immediate needs of other would-be returnees, Al-Anbaa said.

But many IDPs said they will stay put until they are satisfied that the causes of their flight have been resolved.

President Omar al-Beshir pledged on Saturday to disarm and rein in the Janjawid militia groups, but residents say that government military aircraft remain in action despite an April 8 ceasefire deal with the rebels.

Monday's newspaper report coincided with a visit to Al-Fashir by Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, Bashir's newly-appointed representative for Darfur.

Hussein has said his mission included "protecting the citizens and their property from outlaws", "securing the safe return of IDPs to their homes" and "insuring the delivery of relief items to them".

Although the government has welcomed Powell and Annan's upcoming visit, organisers of a massive demonstration in Khartoum, planned to coincide with their trip, said they expected half a million people to turn out.

The demonstration will be staged primarily to protest alleged "US and UN double standards" around the world, particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq.

- AFP