SUDAN: IDPs in need of shelter as rains set in

NAIROBI, 2 July (IRIN) - The need for physical shelter and for a government decision on the situation of a displaced people's camp have emerged as key issues for over 8,000 newly displaced people in Ed Daein (Al-Duwaym), Southern Darfur, according to local government and humanitarian sources.

These internally-displaced people (IDPs) are among more than 30,000 civilians who fled Raga and Daym Zubayr in Western Bahr al-Ghazal after the capture of the towns in an offensive by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in early June.

As of 30 June, 8,172 people were registered at a temporary reception centre in Ed Daein primary school, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). The town's population is estimated at 65,000, including some 11,000 IDPs who left the south in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Many of the new arrivals from Raga were living and sleeping in the open air and, with the rainy season having started, the need for shelter was urgent, humanitarian workers on the ground told IRIN in Ed Daein on Saturday.

Apart from the number of displaced people being too large for the school site to accommodate, and more IDPs still arriving, the school was due to reopen next week, they said.

Moreover, the acting head of the government's Humanitarian Affairs Commission (HAC), Bahid Jacob, emphasised that the reception centre at Ed Daein primary school was temporary and did not constitute an IDP camp, and that the Raga IDPs would have to move to a facility nearby.

The location of the new site has not been finalised, although it is understood that the government has proposed one some 60 km from Ed Daein, while the IDPs are seeking one considerably nearer, preferring to be in an urban environment with which they are familiar.

The IDPs from Raga include government officials, teachers, craft workers (and reportedly some soldiers) who would find it difficult to survive through farming even if provided with seeds and tools, according to relief workers.

"We're looking at the possibilities for getting another place, eight to 10 km away, [from] where people can come to town to work," said Bahid Jacob. "The host community is ready to give land, we have contacted FAO [the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation] about getting seeds, and the Islamic Cooperative Bank is ready to provide finance for them," he added.

In Buram, where the number of IDPs from Raga was approaching 6,000, the matter of finding a suitable site appeared to be closer to a resolution, according to relief workers. A location had been provisionally chosen about 11 km outside Buram, at Gimesa, and both the host community and IDPs appeared comfortable with the choice, they said.

In all, over 20,000 people displaced from Raga had made their way to six sites in Southern Darfur and northern parts of Western Bahr al-Ghazal [from where they are expected to continue northward to South Darfur], the acting commissioner of Ed Daein, Hasan Salih, told IRIN on Saturday.

This situation had exceeded the capacity of the state and provincial authorities to deal with it, so the authorities in Ed Daein were placing a lot of hope in continued help from local and international humanitarian actors, he said.

The government had managed to evacuate the IDPs from "difficult areas" like Timsahah, northwest of Raga in Western Bahr al-Ghazal, but transporting the IDPs and providing for their needs was growing more difficult because the rainy season had arrived, Jacob said. The over 5,000 IDPs who had been sheltering in the village of Timsahah were instructed to "move out" after the Sudanese government declared it a military area, the inter-agency Emergency Response Team established to cope with the Raga crisis reported last week.

By virtue of government efforts, the interventions of local and international NGOs, and the traditional hospitality of Sudanese villagers in the areas through which the IDPs traversed, the situation had been fairly well managed, said HAC Acting Commissioner Bahid Jacob. "From a disaster management point of view, I think we did an excellent job," Jacob told IRIN at the commissioner's office in Ed Daein. "There has been no problem so far with food and medicine, and shelter is the most important thing," he added.

Contrary to some media reports, there had only been isolated incidents of banditry targeting the IDPs on the move northwards, according to Jacob. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Khartoum had written to the Sudanese minister for international cooperation on 21 June, calling on the government to provide the IDPs with relief transport and protection against banditry and armed robbery along the route, UNOCHA reported last week.

Incidents of banditry numbered not more than two or three cases, according to Acting Commissioner of Ed Daein, Hasan Salih, who also dismissed reports of the arrest of a number of IDPs on their arrival from Raga. "I haven't heard of any arrests, and I'm the first man who should be informed," he said. "It's just some kind of propaganda from the south," he ventured.

There were two main directions for the population flow from Raga: the northerly route through Timsahah, 144 km north of Raga, and from which over 5,000 were told to move on when the government declared it a military area; and a westerly route through and then north through Radom to Buram.

On the northern route, there were now no new IDPs from Raga in Timsahah as of 30 June, while there were 2,153 in El Ferdose (Al-Firdaws) and 8,172 in Ed Daein. On the western route, there had been 1,531 registered in Radom and 3,000 on El Firga (Al-Firqah) on 23 June, according to OCHA.

"Things have been contained and controlled - not perfectly, but to a very good extent," said Steve Blderdie of UNICEF. "There has been no outbreak [of disease] reported at all. Here in Ed Daein, people are congested in the school, but there has been no outbreak... and we are now in the process of planning for better quality measures [for the IDPs]," he added.

Small numbers of staff from international NGOs were returned to Raga late last week to assess the humanitarian situation there, but UNOCHA has suggested it could be at least six months before consideration can be given to the IDPs returning to the town.