Displaced of Central Darfur dismiss Wali’s promises as ‘propaganda’

The Governor (Wali) of Central Darfur, Jaafar Abdelhakam, has pledged to grant thousands of the displaced people who want to leave the camps the incentives needed to return to their original areas in five villages, but the displaced in the state described the governor's words as “lies and propaganda to convince Al Bashir to keep him as governor in Central Darfur”.

The pledges include promises of services of drinking water, mills and army and police stations.

El Shafee Abdallah, coordinator of the Central Darfur camps, said the current conditions do not allow the return of the displaced people to their villages occupied by new settlers and in addition to insecurity of which they now suffer in the camps, not to mention those suggested villages.

He renewed the demands of the displaced and said that the main issue is to expel the settlers, establish security, disarm the militias and achieve justice and comprehensive peace, otherwise they will not leave their villages.

Yesterday they submitted to the governor of Central Darfur in Zalingei a file containing the demands handed over by representatives of the displaced in the camps Murnei, Ronga Tas and Habila to provide health and education services, drinking water, mills and army and police stations in their areas of return.

In a statement, the press office of the governor of Central Darfur said that displaced people's representatives had asked for means of movement to transport more than 2,000 families of the displaced who had expressed a desire to return to their villages.

The statement said some of these families committed to begin to move to their villages on March 30, while others on April 5 set the date for the start of their departure of the displacement camps, but the coordinator of displaced people in Central Darfur denied this allegation or any meeting between the displaced and the government.

This month about 400 displaced of camp Neem east of Ed Daein in East Darfur returned to their village at Areit area but were attacked and beaten by unidentified gunmen who injured two of them. The sheikhs said that the displaced returned to camp Neem on Monday morning on the orders of the locality commissioner, Hamdan Adam El Bushra, so as to prevent further violence and clashes.