Large displacement continues in Darfur

The large scale displacement in Darfur is continuing. According to the UN in the first three months of 2009 65,000 people became displaced due to insecurity and reduced international aid. According to the Internal; Displacement Monitoring centre in Switzerland, Darfur has now 2.7 million IDPs. That is the largest number of IDPs from one region in one country in the world.Sudan is by far the country with the most uprooted people in the world.The figures contrast the recent statement made by the chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) who told the UN-Security Council that the situation in Darfur has been improved since UNAMID started to exist in January 2008. About half the population of Darfur is nowadays displaced and 250,000 Darfuri refugees are living in the camps in Chad. An additional two million residents continued to be directly affected by the conflict, the Suisse report states. The figures indicate an increase of about 247,000 IDPs between January 2008 and January 2009. The organization notes that it is possible for the total figure to be higher, since some people may have been displaced since January 2008 and returned home again by January 2009. People have often been displaced for the second or third time since the conflict started in early 2003. It seems that as a result of the expulsion of 13 international and 4 national NGOs from Darfur, IDPs have to move again from one camp to an other. The rpeort says: “Darfur IDPs did not return in any significant numbers to their places of origin, although small-scale spontaneous returns to certain villages occurred.”