By Mahmoud A. Suleiman
The Darfur region is located in the far west of Sudan, on an area of 510,000 square kilometers, is characterized by the diversity of the region and the multiplicity of population and tribal and climate, and is adjacent to several countries. Moreover, the Darfur region neighbouring three countries: Libya from the north, Chad to the west and the Central African Republic (CAR) to the south-west, and from the south the state of South Sudan. The region of Darfur is as well adjacent to some Sudanese states like North Kordofan state and the Northern state in the far north of Sudan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees are people fleeing conflict or persecution. They are defined and protected in international law, and must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk. A plethora of reports indicated that the conditions of the Citizens of Sudan in Darfur’s IDP camps represent the worst cases of displacement model in the world. The Darfur region continue weary and war-torn by the absurd wars of attrition waged by the genocidal criminal Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir through his proxy Janjaweed militias cloned under the codename of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
As of 5 January 2015, IDMS estimates that there were up to 3,100,000 IDPs in Sudan. Internal-displacement.org
This includes figures in the region of Darfur and the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The IDPs in the camps in Darfur are now currently at risk of the trinity of hunger, disease and thirst, especially in the hot dry summer. Their actual figure as of May 2012 estimated at Two and a half million displaced persons (IDPs).
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) the total number of IDPs in Sudan has decreased significantly from a peak of around five million in 2010. This is due both to large-scale movement of southern Sudanese to South Sudan and the fact that former southern Sudanese IDPs, especially in and around Khartoum, were no longer counted as IDPs in Sudan. However, since 2011, the number of IDPs has been steadily increasing. Neither the figure for Sudan nor South Sudan includes IDPs from the Abyei Area as its final status remains undetermined. In Darfur, OCHA receives information on IDP figures from local authorities, the government, other UN agencies and international and national NGOs.
Media quoted news coinciding with the decision of the Government of Khartoum of dismantling the camps for Internally Displaced people (IDPs) that El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state is preparing to receive the Presidents Omar al-Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Déby and the Emir of Qatar for the celebration of the end for the Regional Authority in Darfur by Wednesday, the seventh in September 2016 in El Fasher. The function takes place in the presence of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Shadi and Chadian President Idriss Déby. Tijani Sese said that the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) has become integrated and addressed all the root causes of the problem. He renewed his rejection to any other Document to discuss the issues of the people of Darfur! Moreover, observers said that this is a clear signal that the regime of the NCP is trying to legitimize the dismantling of camps for displaced people in Darfur.
Dr. Tijani Sese Mohammed Ateem, head of the Darfur Regional Authority critics consider him that he has benefited from the Darfur war and the suffering of his relatives and the rest of the people of Darfur. His critics say that Dr. Tijani Sese has not been part of the rebels but the former United States Presidential Envoy to Sudan, retired Major General Jonathan Scott Gration whisked him off to the Qatari capital Doha from Addis Ababa for inaugurating him a Chair for the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), which was manufactured in Doha, Qatar.
Thus, the loop was completed to carry out the plot premeditated in advance, the dismantling the camps for the displaced in Darfur.
The removal of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camps in the Darfur Region remained an obsession with great concern to the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) regime in Khartoum chaired by Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. Omer al-Bashir remains fugitive from the International Justice and the indictee of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the crimes of war, crimes against humanity and genocide he has perpetrated against the civilian Sudanese populations in Darfur. The insistence of the (NCP) government in Khartoum on IDP camps removal because they stand as living witness and stain for the crimes of genocide committed in Darfur. The (NCP) regime alleges that they opted for the closure of the (IDPs) camps in Darfur because the (IDPs) represent bastions for the armed rebel movement supporters.
Furthermore, the issue of the removal of camps for displaced people in Darfur remains causing grave concern to the ruling regime in Khartoum which currently trying relentlessly for rapprochement with the European Union (EU) in an attempt to receive the amounts of money promised to set up camps in Eastern Sudan to prevent migration by detaining migrants from the Horn of Africa mainly- Ethiopian, Eritreans and Somalis from reaching the shores of Europe through Libya. This is more so given the present dire financial situation, approaching bankruptcy, which the (NCP) regime is languishing in. Every sensible individual knows for fact that the (EU) fund received from the EU will be employed for hardware of the war planned against the armed rebel movements by the end of the rainy season in December 2016, as declared by the proxy Janjaweed paramilitary militia , Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader, Commander Major General “Mohammed Hamdan Dogulw”!
It is noteworthy to recall the statements of the (NCP) regime Second Vice President, Hassabo Abdel-Rahman on December 28, 2015 in EL-Fasher when he urged the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Darfur region to choose between two option, ” within no more than a month between resettlement or return to their original areas” adding that his government is determined to close their camps the year 2016. Moreover, Hassabo further reiterated his government’s commitment to take all the measures and do the needful to achieve this goal, stressing that “the year 2016 will see the end of displacement in Darfur”. http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article57524
Unfortunately that Hassabo descends originally from the Darfur region and without a thread of doubt some of his relatives continued suffering from the devastating effects of war in the region for more than a decade.
Since 2002, the region of Darfur in Western Sudan has undergone significant internal conflict, forcing many people from their homes and into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps, as well as Refugee Camps in eastern Chad. – See more at: http://www.ghets.org/projects/darfur-idps-camps/#sthash.4vH7fOv8.dpuf
As of October 2008, Data provided by UNOCHA, indicated that Some 4.7 million people were directly affected by the Darfur conflict, out of a total population of around 6.2 million. In 2008 alone, 310,000 people have been displaced, or newly displaced – bringing the total at the time to 2.7 million. Half of those affected by the conflict were children; of those, nearly 700,000 (the under-five population) have grown up knowing nothing but the conflict. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html
The UN estimates that between 200,000-300,000 people have died in Darfur since the start of the current conflict in 2004. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees are people fleeing conflict or persecution. They are defined and protected in international law, and must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk.
• Since the succession of Sudan, the UN has estimated that at least 2.2 million people remained internally displaced in Sudan at the end of 2011
• This figure includes the following:
▫ 1.9 million IDPs in Darfur
▫ 200,000 IDPs in South Kordofan (excluding Abyei)
▫ 66,000 IDPs in Blue Nile.
IDP Figures In Darfur region prior to dividing it into 5 States
Northern Darfur508,499
Southern Darfur1,410,704
Western Darfur746,912
Total Darfur2,666,115
Recent warfare in Jebel Marra locality resulted into new Displacement of 876912 (IDPs).
There are a huge number of IDP camps in the Darfur region. To give just an example one quotes the following for the North Darfur State:
The State of North Darfur alone accommodates five IDP Camps, the largest of which is «Aboushouk» in which about 50 thousand displaced people live, and »al-Salam» where 49 thousand displaced people live, and »Zamzam» where 39 thousand displaced people reside, and »Kassab» in which 26 thousand IDPs live, and lastly »Fatta Borno» in which 24 thousand displaced people live. Thus, the total number is 163 thousand displaced people in the state of North Darfur. The IDPs numbers in Darfur continue increasing due to the ongoing proxy warfare waged by the regime through the Janjaweed paramilitary militias along with the intertribal fighting stirred up and fueled by the division of the Darfur region on tribal and ethnic basis to five warring states using the principle of divide and rule made its inhabitants in a constant infighting adding more displaced persons to those in the (IDPs) camps. According to figures quoted from the UN, there are at least 52 (IDPs) Camps in Darfur. Furthermore, there are 13 Darfuri refugee camps in the East of the neighbouring Chad. This is in addition to 2 refugee camps in the Central African Republic, 2 camps in in South Sudan, one camp in Uganda and 1 refugee Camp in Kenya. The reported numbers of IDPs in those camps estimated between 1900000 to 2500000. Other more recent reports and according to UN statistics indicated that about 3.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) live in the camps scattered in the capitals of the Five states of Darfur since 2003. The outbreak of the Darfur crisis between the three rebel movements and the (NCP) government forces escalated when the parties failed reaching sustainable peace, despite the signing of a number of negotiated agreements. The most recent agreement signed was so-called the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), signed between the Government of Sudan and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) on 14 July 2011. The Justice and Liberation Movement, was created and manufactured in Qatar when the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) the Founder for the Doha Forum (as Platform for Peace Negotiations) refused to sign the (DDPD) as neither meeting the demands nor keeping pace with the basic rights of the people of Sudan in Darfur.
The crime of forced dismantling of the camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Darfur region is an integral part of the crime of genocide and the earlier conspiracy of the so-called Darfur referendum. Both of these criminal acts represent part and parcel of the fraudulent systematic Falsification of the will of the people of Darfur. Moreover, all these desperate miserably failed efforts, which represent waste of the Sudanese people money and carried out by the regime of the NCP only to protect Omar al-Bashir against the grip and lawful apprehension by International Criminal Court (ICC), which monitors the movements of the genocidal criminal wherever and whenever found.
Thus, dismantling of the camps for the (IDPs) in Darfur by force has become the first and last goal for hiding the landmarks of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed against the people of Sudan in Darfur while the offender and his entourage remain fugitives from the international justice.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir in March 2009 which making it the first president in power required by the court as a second warrant was issued for his arrest in July 2010.
The residents of camps for displaced peoples (IDPs) in Darfur consider the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) was isolated from the core concerns, grievances, and demands of the people of Darfur.
It is clear that nobody else owns a magical wand to solve the Sudanese problems and the damage caused by the National Congress Party (NCP) regime, which continued using a demolition pick over the past 27 lean years, but the united Sudanese people who will not budge from demanding their legitimate rights.
The monster kills a rebel and the Earth Sprouts a Thousand of Rebels.
Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/