US Envoy visits Kalma camp, South Darfur governor

On Saturday, Donald Booth, the US Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, met with displaced leaders in Kalma camp in South Darfur.

The US Envoy visited the camp near Nyala, capital of South Darfur, with a delegation from the American Embassy in Khartoum, camp coordinator Yagoub Mohamed Abdallah told Radio Dabanga.

He said that the delegation posed questions about the causes of their displacement and the reasons why they did not return to their places of origin.

“We told them that we fled aerial bombardments and attacks on our villages by government forces and militiamen. As these crimes still continue and we are still killed, robbed, abducted, and raped, we cannot but stay in the relative safety of the camps.”

The coordinator pointed out that they told Booth about the deterioration of the health and education situation in Kalma camp, that currently hosts 128,000 displaced people.

“We told them that the government's expulsion of relief organisations in 2009 and following years has had a very negative impact on the camp population, as well as the reduction of the food rations,” he said. “We also raised the issue of the government's use of chemical weapons in Jebel Marra and the silence of the UN and the AU about these crimes.”

The US Envoy also met with South Darfur Governor Adam El Faki in Nyala, and discussed with him the security situation in the state and the voluntary return of the displaced.

Booth told reporters in the South Darfur capital on Sunday that he and the members of the US embassy wanted to see the situation in the state for themselves.

He stated that an end must be put to the suffering of the Sudanese people, and said that his country has urged the AU team, mediating the peace talks between the Sudanese government and the armed movements, to join the National Dialogue – initiated by President Omar Al Bashir in early 2014 to solve the various crises in the country.

In late July, the Special Envoy paid a visit to Darfur as well. In Nierteti in South Darfur, he met with a group of 20 displaced elders, women, and youths, who told him about the killings, rapes, detentions, and torture by the government and its militias, and the occupation of their land by new settlers. Not much later, security agents detained 15 of them. Some of them were released after days, the others were transferred to Khartoum and released on 29 September.