Khartoum squatter area demolished

The demolition of a squatter area housing displaced persons from southern Sudan was continuing yesterday in the Carton Kassala area of Khartoum North, humanitarian sources told IRIN. The area shelters some 5,000 squatter families, three thousand of whom are slated to be relocated to two other sites in the city as part of a government urban renewal plan. Two thousand families are to remain in Carton Kassala. The demolitions, using bulldozers, started last week. While the demolition operation was proceeding relatively calmly, humanitarian sources expressed concern regarding the absence of basic services at one of the new settlement sites, also located in Khartoum North, and the lack of preparation to receive the relocated families there. Meanwhile, UN sources said that 95 percent of women held in Khartoum’s prisons are southerners. The proportion of displaced women prisoners was incorrectly reported in IRIN item of 24 November headlined “Briefing on Khartoum displaced.”