Darfur displaced hope to celebrate next year’s Eid El Fitr in peace

The displaced living in the Darfur camps congratulate all the Sudanese on the occasion of Eid El Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and hope that the suffering and displacement in the country will soon come to an end. The governor of Central Darfur on Friday, the first day of the Eid, apologised for the authorities' inability to restore security in the region.

The coordinator of the North Darfur camps for the displaced and senior member of the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association (DDRA), Omda Ahmed Ateem Osman, expressed his hope that next year the people in Darfur and the other war-torn regions in Sudan will be able to celebrate the Eid El Fitr in peace – “without the acts of violence, murders, rapes, aerial bombardments, and forced displacement, that they have been suffering from for so many years.

“We hope and pray that next year a just comprehensive peace prevails in Darfur and the entire Sudan,” he said.

Eisa Adam El Haj, leading member of the DDRA, also conveyed his Eid El Fitr wishes through Radio Dabanga to all the people in Sudan. “We all hope all the displaced in Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile will be able to return to their places of origin this year.”  

Apologies

The governor of Central Darfur, Jaafar Abdelhakam, offered his apologies to the people for the “inability of the government to restore security and stability in Darfur, and provide adequate and sufficient health and education services during the past year”.  

Addressing the worshippers after the Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque of Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur, Abdelhakam pledged to “decisively put an end to the rampant insecurity and the chaos by strictly implementing the new emergency measures”.

He stressed that the state will treat any criminal act with zero-intolerance, and asked the population to cooperate, and “report any crime and the harbouring of criminals to the state authorities”.