Darfur / UNAMID Daily Media Brief

 

 

 

 

Darfur / UNAMID Daily Media Brief

 

EL FASHER (DARFUR), Sudan, August 2, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ — UNAMID Daily Media Brief / 2010-08-01

Security situation update
The situation in Kalma Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp is currently calm but remains tense and unpredictable. UNAMID forces continue to be on high alert.

Acting Mission Chief Yonis visits South Darfur, addresses tensions in Kalma IDP camp
UNAMID Deputy Joint Special Representative (DJSR) and acting Chief of Mission Mohammed Yonis today made a field visit to South Darfur, where he met with the State’s Wali (Governor) and leaders of the troubled Kalma Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, where conflicts over IDP participation in the Doha peace process negotiations recently turned violent, resulting in fatalities estimated, according to different sources, at between five and eight.

DJSR Yonis was accompanied by UNAMID senior officials as well as a Government military liaison officer. Upon arriving in Nyala, Mr. Yonis met with the Wali (Governor) of South Darfur, Dr. Abdul Hammid Musa Kasha, to discuss the security situation in Kalma camp. The Wali asked for a combined effort by UNAMID and the State Government to disarm people in the camp and called for a joint committee to be formed in this regard. Dr. Kasha also asked UNAMID to help deliver the bodies of those killed this weekend to their families, as the authorities could not enter the settlement.

The Wali also took the opportunity of this high-level UNAMID visit to raise a number of issues such as a request for assistance from the Mission in infrastructure projects, notably road construction.

Mr. Yonis thanked the Wali for his Government’s support to UNAMID and pledged the Mission’s collaboration in resolving the Kalma issue, with the cooperation of local authorities and the camp’s IDP leaders (sheikhs). “UNAMID is here to help and to support the Government of the Sudan and the people of Darfur in achieving sustainable peace in the region,” he said

The delegation then travelled to Kalma camp, on the outskirts of Nyala, to meet with the camp’s sheikhs and was appraised of the most recent developments. DJSR Yonis urged the sheikhs to spare no effort to avert further violence and pave the way to reconciliation. The sheikhs in turn asked for UNAMID’s help in providing urgently needed humanitarian aid, mainly food, water and medical supplies, to the thousands of IDPs who gathered around its local Community Policing Center (CPC) over the weekend seeking security.

There are currently several thousand people with their meager possessions surrounding the CPC. Many IDPs have also left for Nyala to escape the violence.

UNAMID patrols
UNAMID military forces conducted 71 patrols including routine, short-range, long-range, night and humanitarian escort patrols covering 56 villages and IDP camps.

UNAMID police advisors conducted 80 patrols in villages and IDP camps.

 

SOURCE 

United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)