UN official’s claim 100,000 refugees returned to Darfur false

There have been suggestions in the international media that more than 100,000 refugees have left the camps in Chad and returned to Darfur in the past year. Radio Dabanga conducted an extensive investigation to find out if this was the case. The results suggest otherwise. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed that there are currently 12 camps in Chad with 282,743 registered people. In interviews with the 12 camp leaders to be broadcast over the next few days, they said the return of 100,000 refugees was ‘misleading’ and if this was the case the camps would also be visibly emptier. The leaders of Gaga, Furshana, Berayjin, Terayjin, Milih, Tolom, Um Nabuk, Areka Soni, Jebel, Kulungo, Ardimay, Goz Amir said they were surprised at the timing of this ‘false information’ suggesting refugees were freely returning to Darfur. They reiterated their calls for full disarmament of militias, to expel those settled on their land and prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur. The leaders demand a comprehensive peace deal with all the non-signatory movements to the Doha agreement and the rebuilding of their villages that were destroyed. UNHCR deny return UNHCR denied the return of any Sudanese refugees to Darfur in 2011. ‘There are 282,743 registered in the camps in Chad. We had heard that some may have spontaneously returned to Darfur but they were not accompanied by us. Our staff on the ground have not been able to provide any material evidence that they were living in the camps in Chad’, said Jean Bosco UNHCR Chad representative to Radio Dabanga. Government wants to mislead The 12 camp leaders said the insistence of the Sudanese government and the UN /African Union Mission in Darfur to tell the international media that refugees are beginning voluntary return is to deceive the world into thinking peace and stability have returned to Darfur. They added that there are non-Sudanese nomads that have entered the area, mainly from Niger, Nigeria and Chad and that authorities photograph these people to create the impression that Darfuri refugees have returned.In West Darfur, where the 100,000 refugees were reported to have returned, displaced people also told Radio Dabanga there are new settlers in the area. ‘They have taken over areas belonging to the Masalit who are still living as refugees in Chad’. NYT reports return The New York Times reported in February that 100,000 refugees had returned to the Nyuru area of Darfur from the camps in Chad in 2011.’It’s amazing,’ said Dysane Dorani, head of the UN mission for the western sector of Darfur to the NYT. ‘The people are coming together. It reminds me of Lebanon after the civil war.’ ‘On a recent morning, thousands of Nyuru’s residents were back on their land doing all the things they used to do, scrubbing clothes, braiding hair, sifting grain and preparing for a joint feast of farmers and nomads. Former victims and former perpetrators would later sit down side by side together, some for the first time since Darfur’s war broke out, sharing plates of macaroni and millet — and even the occasional dance — in a gesture of informal reconciliation.’ From the interviews conducted with camp leaders and UNHCR it appears that the NYT was misled by Dorani and the residents in place are in fact new settlers and not Darfuri villagers. You can read the rest of the New York Times article here.