UN High Commissioner for Refugees visits East Darfur camp

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, visited camp Nimir for South Sudan refugees in East Darfur on Monday, urging refugees to preserve security.

Commissioner Grandi visited the health centre, waiting centre, registration centre, and the host community school in the camp, 15km west of the state capital Ed Daein, and held a number of special meetings with the refugees to hear their complaints.

Camp Nimir accommodates 5,537 refugees, of whom 64% are women. There are about 500 registered families.

Grandi said that the purpose of the visit is to assess the situation in the camp and provide more support to the refugees who fled the wars and famine in South Sudan.

He called for the need to stop the war in South Sudan and appealed to the refugees to preserve the safety of the place they are living in, while respecting the law of the host country and not to lose hope of returning to their countries if security and reassurance are available.

Health centre

The representative of the refugees said that they feel the need upgrade the health centre to a rural hospital to keep up with the health care necessities of the camp, in addition to building a school for elementary and secondary school students, expanding the water network, and increasing the rations given to them.

The Governor of East Darfur called on the international community to provide more support to the refugees. He said that Sudan has opened all border crossings with South Sudan.

The Governor said in a press statement that the state is sharing food and water. He confirmed the High Commissioner’s statement that they should respect the laws and security of the country and that they should have the hope of returning home.

Funding

The Sudanese government has demanded that the United Nations provide adequate funds to cover the expenses of hundreds of thousands of refugees hosted by the country.

Idris Suleiman, Minister of International Cooperation of the new National Reconciliation Government of Sudan, met with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) representative for Sudan, Noriko Yoshida on Monday.

During the meeting the Sudanese minister discussed with the UN official “the need to provide the necessary budget from the international community to cover the requirements of the refugees in Sudan”.