Darfur camp elders cancel meeting with UN aid chief
(AFP) – 1 hour ago
CAMP AL-SALAM, Sudan — Leaders at a refugee camp in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region refused on Sunday to meet visiting United Nations aid chief Valerie Amos, an AFP correspondent reported.
The move comes after Sudanese authorities last month arrested two elders at another camp after they reportedly met a delegation of UN ambassadors, including US diplomat Susan Rice.
On Sunday at Camp al-Salam on the outskirts of El-Fasher, the capital of the western region of Darfur, elders scrapped a planned meeting with Amos without giving reasons for their decision.
“I hope that there is no fear,” Amos told reporters after the camp leaders failed to show up for their meeting.
“My understanding is that there are a number of issues that the sheikhs would like to raise with me, and they have said that they would raise them with me the way they wish,” she added.
It was not clear last month if the men at Abu Shouk camp were arrested because they had met members of the visiting UN delegation.
But their detention was strongly condemned at UN headquarters in New York where US ambassador Rice said “any such actions are unacceptable.”
“Since learning of the detentions and reported intimidation, we have been actively working through various channels, through direct communication with the Sudanese, through the US embassy, through the UN and in conjunction with other Security Council member states, to establish the facts and ensure the safety of all who interacted with the Security Council during our visit,” she said in a statement on October 25.
“We have yet to receive any information that alleviates our deep concern over this issue.”
Amos, the head of the UN humanitarian office, has been visiting Sudan and on Saturday was in the southern capital of Juba ahead of a referendum on independence for south Sudan due to take place in January.
Darfur has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died in the conflict.