Government to ensure safe return of Darfur IDPs

The Sudanese government has undertaken to ensure the safe return home of more than a million people displaced by conflict in the western Darfur region, and pledged to abide by a policy of voluntary return. In a memorandum of understanding signed on Saturday between Khartoum, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the government said it would "spare no efforts in establishing the necessary security and humanitarian conditions for the phased return to their homes or elsewhere of displaced persons in the most safe, dignified and efficient manner". Khartoum granted the IOM and its partners full access to internally displaced persons (IDPs), and to communities to which they would be returning, as provided for in a 3 July Joint Communiqué between the UN and the government of Sudan. Khartoum also agreed to accept IOM's determination of the voluntariness and appropriateness of planned IDP returns before they take place, according to the text of the memorandum of understanding. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, IOM's Director General Brunson McKinley and the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, signed. The IOM would, for its part, assist in the voluntary return of the IDPs to their homes and help in the reintegration of displaced people in their communities. The memorandum of understanding also provided for the establishment of a Management and Coordination Mechanism (MCM) on the voluntary return of the IDPs. The MCM will initially be made up of representatives from the government, the IOM and the UN, and will be convened in the second week of September. The Darfur conflict that pits the government against insurgents, erupted early last after rebel groups made up mainly of members of African farming ethnic groups accused Khartoum of marginalising the region. Khartoum has been widely accused of arming Arab militias known as Janjawid who are said to have killed, pillaged and torched villages in Darfur, but the government strongly denies the charge. The UN has said that the violence in Darfur has created "the world's worst humanitarian crisis", with about 200,000 refugees fleeing in neighbouring Chad and more than one million others displaced inside Sudan. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, has visited South Darfur, where he met the state governor in Nyala, and IDPs in Kalma camp. The visit followed a meeting between the UN and the Sudanese government on Friday during which Khartoum announced measures to implement its Darfur plan of action. The measures included the deployment of 2,000 more police, the redeployment of armed forces to avoid direct contact with civilians and IDPs, and the identification of militias in the areas where the government has influence, UN News reported.