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A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

♦ New service complex opened in North Darfur's Tabit

December 8 – 2015 TABIT The First Vice-President of Sudan and the Deputy Prime-Minister of Qatar officially opened a service complex in the Tabit Unit area in Tawila locality, North Darfur, today.

The complex is part of the Voluntary Return Programme, sponsored by Qatar since the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur was signed in 2011. It includes a police station, a rural hospital, a mosque, four schools, and a water station, and offers a model housing project and an economic project for poor families. The construction took three years, at a cost of $6 million. The Tabit Unit area consists of 28 villages that host more than 20,000 inhabitants.

In his opening speech, Qatari Deputy Prime-Minister Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud stated that his country planned to fund the construction of water wells in 11 Darfur localities, as well as 10 model villages at a total cost of $70 million.

For his part, First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Saleh called on the people in Darfur to participate in the referendum next year in which they can chose to return to the system of one administrative region or continue the current five Darfur states.

The Darfur Reconstruction Fund, headed by Qatar, has already realised 315 projects in Darfur, out of 1,071 planned projects which include schools, health centres, and police stations.

Displaced people living in Tabit told Radio Dabanga that they were not concerned, in particular after the security forces warned the population of Tabit not to raise any complaint to the first vice-president or the Qatari functionaries.

“The first vice-president belongs to the government officials who protect the perpetrators of many atrocities in the region, including the mass rape of last year and the widespread militia attacks on villages in the area last week,”one of them commented.

He said that the displaced people who attended the opening ceremony had been brought in, “in more than 150 vehicles”, from El Fasher, Shangil Tobaya, Dar Es Salaam, Kalimendo, and Tawila.

“The ceremony took place under tight security, involving government forces in more than 150 vehicles loaded with various weapons,” he further reported. “The vice-president and his entourage arrived in Tabit at 10.30 am by four helicopters, of which three belong to Unamid. They left again at 1 pm.”

On Sunday and Monday, thousands of newly displaced people who sought refuge near Tabit after their villages were pillaged and torched in repeated militia attacks last week, were deported to areas at a distance of at least one kilometre from the model service complex.

The source referred to the 36-hour mass rape that took place end October, early November last year. After a Sudanese soldier went missing in the village in the evening of 30 October, military forces of the nearby garrison entered Tabit the following day. While a number of soldiers seized and kept the men, others raped more than 200 girls and women.

Radio Dabanga received the first reports on the incidents on 2 November. Initially the local military commander apologised for the rape. The Sudanese government responded with fierce denials. Visitors as well as a Unamid verification team were barred from accessing the area for a week.

♦ Thousands return to Central Darfur despite insecurity

December 4 – 2015 UM DUKHUN Thousands of people have returned from Chad to Um Dukhun locality in Central Darfur, according to findings by humanitarian aid workers and traditional leaders. Many refugees decided to return because of registration demands by the Chadian government, although the majority consider their home areas in Darfur still unsafe to return to.

Approximately 24,000 people have returned to Muradaf in Um Dukhun, the UN's humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) reported this week. 14,000 people had returned by June this year and an additional 24,000 people in November.

According to the returnees speaking to aid workers and traditional leaders, they decided to return because of the improved security situation in Um Dukhun since the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement between the two tribes in September 2014.

Another factor that led to the return was the Chadian government's ultimatum for Sudanese refugees to either integrate into the camps or to return to Sudan. The majority of the returnees lived outside of camps in Chad and they were not registered as refugees.

The returnees have settled in the Muradaf area, very close to the border with Chad, because they consider their home areas in Um Dukhun still too unsafe to return to.

The government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the international NGO Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH), and traditional leaders conducted the assessment that took place on 17 November.
Insecurity remains in Um Dukhun. Yesterday, clashes broke out between Misseriya and Salamat tribesmen in the area of Um Dukhun, Central Darfur. “Three people were killed,” a listener reported to Radio Dabanga, saying that a committee of tribe elders intervened and contained the conflict.

In October, five Salamat and two Misseriya tribesmen were killed, and several others were wounded in fighting that broke out over a cattle theft. 54 tribesmen were killed in the Misseriya-Salamat fighting in Um Dukhun locality in Central Darfur in the year 2014, according to the National Council for Strategic Planning in Sudan in October.

Other news highlights:

Letter to UN head, US president on aid to Sudan's war-affected areas

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MP accuses Sudanese Hajj office of fraud

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North Darfur: Newly displaced arrive in Um Baru

December 7 – 2015 KHARTOUM About 150 displaced families who fled repeated militia attacks on their villages in Kutum locality last week arrived at Um Baru camps for the displaced on…

SPLM-N claims killing of govt. troops in South Kordofan

December 7- 2015 KHARTOUM The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) reported the killing of nine government troops in an attack on a military comvoy near Delling in South Kordofan…

East Jebel Marra villages cleared: Three Darfur children die

December 6 – 2015 KHARTOUM Three children who were among the people who fled militia attacks on their villages in East Jebel Marra last week, died on Saturday. The villagers who sought refuge…

OCHA: Haemorrhagic fever cases in Darfur reach 469

December 6 – 2015 KHARTOUM Between 29 August-27 November, 469 suspected cases of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF), including 120 deaths, were reported in the five Darfur states, according to…

Sudanese Pound drops again: 11.5 for US Dollar

December 4 – 2015 KHARTOUM The Sudanese pound has continued its decline against the foreign currencies. On Thursday, the US Dollar against the Sudanese pound in the parallel markets….

Protest in Sudan capital by Merowe Dam affected

December 3 – 2015 KHARTOUM Dozens of villagers from the Emre area in Sudan’s Northern State staged a protest in front of the Dams Implementation Unit office in Khartoum on Wednesday…

This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe to the newsletter here.