Newly displaced in Darfur in urgent need of shelter

Newly displaced in several Darfur camps are suffering from a lack of adequate shelter. “The newly displaced who sought refuge in Kalma and El Salam camps in South Darfur, and Zamzam and El Salam camps in North Darfur are complaining about a lack of tents and tarpaulins, to protect them from the summer heat, rains, and winds”, the Secretary-General of Kalma camp, Saleh Eisa, reported to Radio Dabanga. “The newly displaced are still living in the open. The UNHCR told us more than two months ago that its stockpiles of tarpaulins would not be sufficient for all the 106,000 newly displaced. They said that they would distribute them to orphans, widows, and disabled.” The Kalma camp official appealed to the UN agency for refugees, as well as to the American-based International Rescue Committee to accelerate the provision of tents and plastic sheets to the displaced especially as the rainy season has already begun. Since February this year, large troupes of paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, recruited and commanded by the Sudanese security apparatus, have launched widespread attacks on villages in Darfur, in particular in South and North Darfur. According to a report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 26 May 2014, fighting and insecurity displaced 321,929 people in Darfur since January this year. Most of these newly displaced sought refuge at existing camps and Unamid team sites in Darfur. File photo: Provisional shelters of the newly displaced in a camp near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur (Radio Dabanga correspondent)