70,000 Darfur IDPs reportedly taken back to their homes

Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy to Sudan, met with Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS), told IRIN on Friday. "Ismail provided Pronk with an update on the measures the government of Sudan had taken to end impunity in Darfur," Achouri said. "A number of people, including Janjawid militia, have been arrested, while 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur were claimed to have been repatriated." She said that Pronk took note of the number of people who had been returned to their homes, but he needed more information to establish whether this had occurred on a voluntary basis. "He was particularly concerned that neither the UN High Commissioner for Refugees nor the International Organisation for Migration had been consulted prior to the repatriation, as had been agreed upon earlier," Achouri added. In response, the government of Sudan invited the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Manuel Ananda da Silva, to verify the repatriation process on the ground in Darfur. It was the last joint-implementation meeting before the UN special envoy was due to give his monthly report to the UN Security Council on Darfur. On the basis of this report, the Council will decide whether further international actions are necessary. The African Union (AU) agreed on Wednesday to boost the number of peacekeepers in Darfur and to send in a civilian police force, Said Djinnit, head of the AU’s Peace and Security Council, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The deployment of the armed force, which would number over 3,000, was expected in a matter of weeks he said. The one-year mission would be made up of 2,241 troops, of whom 450 would be military observers, and 815 civilian police. There would also be 164 support staff. The AU currently has fewer than 400 troops in the region. Djinnit told reporters that the exact rules of engagement for the AU force had yet to be drawn up. The force would also investigate violations of the humanitarian ceasefire and provide a visible military presence to stop armed groups like the Janjawid militias from attacking civilians. Achouri called the decision of the AU "a real break-through" and she said to be "very hopeful that the new AU forces, with an expanded mandate, will lead to real change on the ground in Darfur". The war in Darfur pits the Sudanese government troops and militias allegedly allied to the government against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad.