Shelter a priority for IDPs in Ed Daein

The need for physical shelter was on Saturday cited by a humanitarian official of the Sudanese government as “the most important thing” for over 8,000 newly displaced people in Ed Daein (Al-Duwaym), Southern Darfur, who fled Raga town in Western Bahr al-Ghazal after the capture of the towns by the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in early June. The acting head of the government’s Humanitarian Affairs Commission (HAC), Bahid Jacob, also said that the reception centre at Ed Daein primary school where 8,172 internally-displaced people (IDPS) were registered did not constitute a displacement camp, and that the IDPs would have to move to another site. The location of this has not been finalised, although it is understood that the government has proposed one some 60 km from Ed Daein, while the IDPs are seeking one considerably nearer, preferring to be in an urban environment with which they are familiar.

“We’re looking at the possibilities for getting another place, eight to 10 km away, [from] where people can come to town to work,” said Bahid Jacob. “The host community is ready to give land, we have contacted FAO [the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation] about getting seeds, and the Islamic Cooperative Bank is ready to provide finance for them,” he added. Incidents of banditry and violence as the Raga IDPs had made their way northwards numbered not more than two or three cases, according to Acting Commissioner of Ed Daein, Hasan Salih. He also dismissed reports of the arrest of a number of IDPs on their arrival in Ed Daein from Raga. “I haven’t heard of any arrests, and I’m the first man who should be informed,” he said. “It’s just some kind of propaganda from the south,” he ventured. [for more details, see separate IRIN report of 2 July entitled “SUDAN: IDPs in need of shelter as rains set in”]