Militia ‘show of force’ causes panic in South Darfur’s Kalma camp

The residents of Kalma camp for the displaced in the South Darfur capital of Nyala are reportedly in a state of panic after a group of militiamen entered the camp in heavily armed vehicles on Monday morning.

Yagoub Abdallah Furi, the General Coordinator of displaced and refugees camps, told Radio Dabanga from Kalma camp that the incursion by armed men with heavy weapons caused panic among the camp residents. He called on Unamid to protect the camp from the “terrorist tactics” of the militants.

Furi said the armed group which included Land Cruisers mounted with ‘dushka’ machine guns drove several blocks into the centre of the camp. The vehicles later left. He warned the government against "the consequences of terrorising the displaced persons in the camps by the use of a military show of force".

He considered this as an indication of the government’s attempt to dismantle the camps.

‘Undercover agents’

Furi accused the government of earlier “sending undercover security agents in civilian clothes to camps for the displaced in Darfur to identify the homes of the leaders in order to eliminate or assassinate them… the security agents fled the camp after the disclosure of their plan”.

Furi’s statement says the return of displaced to their villages is conditional to disarming militias, expelling the settlers, bringing the perpetrators to justice and individual and collective compensation for those affected by the war.