UN team visits Northern and Southern Darfur

The high-level United Nations team currently on a fact-finding mission to Sudan's western region of Darfur has split into two groups, the UN reported. One group, led by World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris, first went to Bandago, a village whose sole inhabitants were found to be just three elderly men, out of an original population of 250 families, UN News said. The group then went on to Korma, about 80 km northwest of Al-Fashir, the state capital. Here, the marketplace had been completely destroyed. People in the town told the team that they had been attacked by militia who killed 49 residents on 16 March. Next, at Abu Shawk camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) the group briefly spoke with residents. It "stressed to local officials that IDPs' areas of origin needed to be safe before they could go home", UN News said. The other group, led by the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, Tom Eric Vraalsen, went to Southern Darfur State, where they met the state governor on Wednesday. On Thursday, they proceeded to the town of Kas, about 60 km northwest of the state capital, Nyala. Here, they found that "IDPs were being housed in public buildings and other 'highly unsuitable accommodations'". The town's hospital was found to be in a "bad condition". On their way from Kas to Nyala, the group had stopped at a burnt-down village before meeting officials and the local peace committee, UN News added. The aim of the mission was "to assess the scope of what has been characterised as the world's worst humanitarian disaster, as Arab militias attack the local black Sudanese", it added. The Darfur conflict, which erupted early last year between the Sudanese government and militias allied to it on the one hand and two rebel groups on the other hand, has displaced over one million people. The UN mission is expected to return to Khartoum on Friday and leave the country the following day.