♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
♦ UNHCR 'deeply concerned' over asylum-seekers deported to Eritrea
September 10 – 2017 KHARTOUM The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that it is deeply concerned about reports of the deportation of approximately 30 young asylum-seekers from Sudan to Eritrea on 29 August, for their 'illegal infiltration into the Sudanese territory'.
The Kassala city court ruled that in total, 104 Eritreans had to be deported last month. They were brought to the immigration police and returned to Eritrea through El Laffa crossing the next day. Last week, police in Kassala also detained fifteen Eritrean refugees and prepares to bring them to trial on charges of illegally entering eastern Sudan.
UNHCR Deputy Representative for Sudan Elizabeth Tan said in a written press statement to Radio Dabanga on 6 September: “UNHCR is concerned that these asylum-seekers do not appear to have had their claims adequately heard, and they were deported on charges of illegal entry into Sudan which is not supported under international refugee law.”
“The forcible return of the 30 Eritrean asylum-seekers is believed not to have been the first such breach of refugee law by Sudan,” the UK-based Human Rights Concern-Eritrea (HTCE) said in a press statement on Friday.
According to the UNHCR, Sudan is one of the main transit countries of eastern Africans who want to travel to Europe by sea. Funding by the European Commission to the Sudanese government earlier this year, to be implemented under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, contains a development aid package of €40 million that is appointed to Better Migration Management in Khartoum.
♦ 'Diarrhoea epidemic under control': Sudan Health Minister
September 12 – 2017 DARFUR / EASTERN SUDAN Sudan's Minister of Health, Bahar Idris Abugarda, reported that the number cases of 'acute watery diarrhoea' or cholera in East Jebel Marra has decreased to less than five reported cases a day. The minister visited the cholera isolation centre in Lebei in East Jebel Marra for the first time this week. visit coincided with the opening of a new branch for isolating cases of cholera in Fina, and another one planned to open soon in Dodu.
Lebei is the only cholera treatment centre in the area, established by the South Darfur Ministry of Health last month. On 7 September volunteers in the area told Radio Dabanga that the rate of cholera infections remains high: they estimated it at more than 100 incoming cases of cholera every day while the area runs short on medicines and health organisations that can intervene.
In Blue Nile state, six people died of cholera and dozens of new cases were recorded in Ed Damazin and surroundings on Wednesday and Thursday. In El Abbasiya in South Kordofan, 13 new cases were recorded on Saturday and Sunday.
Reports of cholera from other parts in Darfur include the death of six people in Murnei camp last Wednesday, and three people on Friday. In Kalma camp near Nyala, capital of South Darfur, three camp residents died from the infectious disease on Thursday and Friday. 27 new cases were recorded. Four people died of cholera in the hospital in Garsila, Central Darfur, from Tuesday to Thursday. But the Health Ministry of South Darfur and the municipality of the state capital of Nyala have begun a series of measures to contain cholera in Nyala that have caused the death of dozens and infection hundreds in the city and its surrounding camps for the displaced.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
September 12 – 2017 MURNEI Seventeen people infected with malaria were brought to the hospital in Murnei camp, West Darfur, yesterday. There are not enough medicines against malaria in the camp for displaced people, causing the prices to rise…
Public nuisance: Four students charged, police hunt young people
September 12 – 2017 OMDURMAN / JEBEL ALIA The court in Omdurman sentenced four students for public nuisance on Monday, as the police and security service search and detain young people gathering in the streets in the evenings…
Unamid concerned over allegations of improper team site handovers
September 11 – 2017 EL FASHER The United Nations-African Union peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid) expressed its concern today about allegations that the handover of team sites in North Darfur has been improper.On 29 June, the UN Security…
Sudan: Akhir Lahza newspaper suspended for three days
September 10 – 2017 KHARTOUM Sudan’s National Council for Press and Publications suspended Akhir Lahza daily for three days in a row last week. The security apparatus reminded the editors-in-chief of all Sudanese newspapers of the ban on interviews with rebel…
September 8 – 2017 KASS Five residents in Kass, South Darfur, were injured in an attack by camel herders on Wednesday. According to the residents in Krukuli village, the reason for the attack was that the farmers…
Floods threaten 15,000 Sudanese as attempts to save White Nile dam fail
September 7 – 2017 TENDELTI Attempts to shore-up Al Aawar dam that sustained cracks and a partial failure after floods in Sudan’s White Nile state on Monday have failed. Al Aawar has now almost completely collapsed, threatening the homes of some 15,000 people…
DRDC report: 'Political assassinations of students from Darfur continue in Sudan'
September 6 – 2017 GENEVA In a report published yesterday, the Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC) laments that “political assassinations and violence against university students in Sudan have reached epidemic proportions,” and that it is “deeply…
Militia 'show of force' causes panic in South Darfur’s Kalma camp
September 6 – 2017 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…
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