Churches speak out on relocation of displaced people

A roundtable meeting of the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) last week expressed concern over the government’s proposal to relocate some 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps around Khartoum. “The situation of IDPs in the camps is desperate, most have no money for medical services or school fees and they have very little to protect themselves from the extremes of the weather,” it said in a statement. “Now the government plans to move them even further out into the countryside, where basic services are inadequate or in some cases, non-existent.” The SCC also deplored recent incidents in Catholic schools in Khartoum where police and armed security forces were sent to schools for “no apparent reason”, frightening both pupils and teachers.