Looming rainy season threat of ‘disaster’ at Nyala camps, South Darfur

Kalma camp near Nyala in South Darfur has seen 89 new families arrive during the past three days. They are all fleeing the renewed Fur-Tarjam tribal clashes in the area. Sheikh Ali Taher of the camp told Radio Dabanga that 26 families arrived on Saturday and 36 on Monday. He described their situation as “dire” as they lack shelter, food and water. Many of the children have diarrea. Sheikh Taher said that the situation at the camp is now “dangerous” and appealed to international NGOs to provide the new arrivals with food and shelter. At El Salam camp, also near Nyala, an as yet unidentified illness is causing coughing in both children and sheep. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Sheikh Mahjoub Adam Tabaldiya attributed the spread of the disease to a lack of food and shelter, especially as the rainy season has started. He also appealed to NGOs to “move quickly”. “Up till now, the NGOs have not supplied any of these new arrivals with food or shelter,” he said. “Unless something is done soon, we will be facing an environmental disaster.” Speaking on behalf of the Government of South Darfur, the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commissioner (HAC) in Nyala, Jamal Yusuf Idris, told Radio Dabanga on Monday that the process of counting all of the displaced in the Nyala camps is on-going, and is being done in cooperation with international organisations such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “The head-count is not complete because the displaced persons are constantly on the move. We had an initial list of about 9,000 families, but we are now re-counting in cooperation with NGOs, as well as the Sheiks and administrations of the Nyala camps.” Idris said that “some of the displaced have been provided with food and shelter”. “As for the situation in Katayla and Tullus, while thousands of Gimr fled the recent tribal hostilities between the Gimr and Beni Halba, according to information we received from Katayla, many of those families have returned home,” Idris claims. The Commissioner said that he is coordinating with HAC and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Khartoum to provide these families with shelter and food. “I am also requisitioning a water pump as well as medicines to be sent to the Tullus locality, where the situation is under control.   File photo: A newly displaced woman in South Darfur. (Albert González Farran – Unamid)