Northern Sudan: displaced in Atbara expelled from shelters in schools

Authorities in Atbara, River Nile state, in northern Sudan forced displaced people sheltering in two schools to leave the shelters on Monday. Officials say the displaced were warned and had agreed to leave. The Sudanese Teachers’ Committee has set conditions for the resumption of classes and again warns of the “division of the country”.

Displaced people told Radio Dabanga that the two schools, which had been turned into shelter centres after war broke out in Khartoum and other parts of the country in April last year, housed 26 families.

On Monday morning, a heavily armed police force raided the El Humeira Girls School in the Hasaya neighbourhood of the town, accompanied by officials and representatives of Atbara Education Department, and expelled the 17 families, among them pregnant women and infants, from the school.

The seven families sheltering in the Badr El Kubra School for Boys in the same neighbourhood, were also expelled.

“The police suddenly appeared in El Humeira, without prior notification, forcefully removed us, and damaged and destroyed our property,” one of the victims told Radio Dabanga. Another victim said that the policemen abused his daughter.

“The authorities wanted us to move to a remote shelter centre in Village Six in the vicinity of El Damer, which does not have the most basic necessities of life, including electricity,” the source explained. “We refused to go there and are now staying in the open in Hasaya.”

Another displaced woman said that they spent the night outdoors, “with the dogs and donkeys”, and did not have a meal until late in the evening. “Today, we had breakfast with the help of the people of the neighbourhood.”

She explained that all the families in the two centres came from Khartoum about a year ago. “The police were very brutal against us. What happened to us yesterday is similar to the scenes of war that took place in Khartoum and led to our displacement.”

River Nile state houses about 700,000 displaced people in 288 shelter centres, including 95 centres in the various neighbourhoods of Atbara, in 52 mosques, 39 schools, and four sports clubs.

Justification

Radio Dabanga spoke with the director of Atbara locality, who explained that electricity is now provided in Village Six in New Manasir in neighbouring Ed Damer. “That is why we chose it as an alternative location to shelter the displaced,” he said. “We have also taken care of the water supply.”

The Atbara administration did address the displaced people in the two schools, he added. “The places have now been earmarked as centres for student examinations and we have given the people sheltering in the two schools sufficient warnings that they had to leave. “Atbara officials held direct meetings with the displaced people, during which they agreed to leave, and upon implementation, they backed down.”

He accused “unnamed parties” of infiltrating the displaced people to implement their malicious agenda”.

The authorities prepared buses to transport the displaced to alternative shelter centres in New Manasir and handed a house key to each head of a family. “We did not offer them the option of returning to Omdurman.”

The school year in Nile River state resumed in November, while studies are still suspended in most Sudanese states due to the war and the conversion of schools to shelters. Universities are also organising examinations in the reasonably secure state. Therefore, students are asked to travel northern Sudan from various parts of the country.

In Red Sea state, the authorities opened the schools in mid-April, after large numbers of displaced were deported. In El Gedaref, also in eastern Sudan, preparations continue for the resumption of school on May 26. The authorities are examining the solutions for shelter centres in the school buildings.

In the areas under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Abu Agla Keikel, RSF commander in El Gezira, announced the start of classes last week, despite the insecurity in the state. In western Sudan, schools reopened in El Geneina, West Darfur, in early January, and in the South Darfur capital of Nyala in February.

‘Division of the country’

Ammar Yousef of the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee, commented on the forced evacuation by saying that the committee has set conditions for the resumption of the classes and warning of catastrophic results if they are not met.

The requirements include providing teachers’ salaries, rehabilitation of the school buildings, the opening of the schools in all states at the same time, “to avoid turning education into a factor in the division and disintegration of Sudan.

“Decisions on education, such as curricula and exams, must be centralised,” he stressed. “When each warring party announces the resumption of education in areas under its control, this will lead to disastrous results for the unity of Sudan and its social fabric.”

He further told Radio Dabanga that the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee has presented “a complete road map for resuming studies. If the warring parties and state officials commit to it, education will become a gateway for stopping the war.”

In October last year, the Sudanese Teachers’ Committee already rejected the decision to resume studies in “safe areas” in the country, calling it “an entry point to divide Sudan”. An estimated 19 million children were out of school in Sudan at the time.

Concerning the reopening of the schools in November, the River Nile State Teachers Committee also denounced the decision. “The situation in the so-called safe areas is far from conducive for the resumption of classes,” committee member Musab Abdeljalil commented from the Rive Nile state capital Ed Damer.

“Firstly, a large number of schools cannot be opened as they are still hosting displaced people. Secondly, there are hardly schoolbooks available, and new material for the third intermediate grade has not come out yet. And thirdly, teachers here have not been paid for more than three months, so they and most of the other parents have no money to buy school supplies for their children.

 “We do not want an elitist education that serves half of the students in the country, but a normal education that includes all,” the teacher said.