7,000 return to villages in West Darfur: IOM

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has completed the registration of more than 7,000 returnees in two villages in West Darfur last week. According to the weekly bulletin of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan, close to 2,200 returnees were registered in Fagangta village and another 5,000 people in Meleibida village. According to IOM, most of the registered returnees were displaced in Mistri camp in Beida locality and the rest were refugee returnees from the Chadian border villages. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), between January and September 2014, 3,000 new returns were registered in West Darfur, with the majority (2,714 returns) being refugee returns. The Return and Reintegration Working Group (RRWG) in West Darfur reports that apart from refugee returns to the four villages in Beida and El Geneina localities there have been few returns to the state in 2014. Some old cases of spontaneous returns were verified in 2014 in Jebel Moon, Beida and Habila localities. So far, no organised return has occurred in West Darfur, according to the RRWG. File photo: Returnees in Darfur (Albert Gonzalez Farran – Unamid)