UN envoy hopes for progress on IDP mission

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Displaced Persons, Francis Deng, has expressed regret in a report to the UN General Assembly at a Sudanese government decision earlier this year against a mission by him to Sudan. Deng, a Sudanese national himself, said he was due to travel to Sudan - the country with by far the greatest number of internally-displaced people (IDPs) in the world, at over four million - in May when, “regrettably, at the last moment, certain elements in the government decided against the mission... for reasons that were not given.” That was also supposed to be combined with two workshops on displacement: one to be held in Khartoum, and which had been agreed on by the government, and one to be held in Rumbek, in Lakes region (Al-Buhayrat), southern Sudan, which were also cancelled, he reported on 21 August. However, Deng said he was welcome to visit Sudan in order to discuss the situation, with a view to agreeing on alternative arrangements, and it was hoped that the matter would be resolved shortly “so that the mission and the workshops can go forward, as originally agreed.” There has been some progress on achieving a better coordinated international response to displacement, and important efforts to have Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement promoted and applied, yet the global crisis of internal displacement remained acute and left no room for complacency, Deng told the UN General Assembly.