North Darfur displaced protest against referendum

On Tuesday, displaced people in Kabkabiya, North Darfur, took to the streets of the camps in protest against the Darfur referendum on the administrative status of the region, scheduled to take place in April.

The protesters called on the Sudanese government “to address the rampant insecurity and the absence of the rule of law in the region rather than organise an untimely referendum on the administrative status of Darfur”.

The coordinator of the Kabkabiya camps told Radio Dabanga that the demonstrations took place in the Matar, Hai El Salam, Rayya West, and Rayya North camps in Kabkabiya locality. He said they will continue for three days, after which the displaced will hand a memorandum to the government of the locality.

National Dialogue

The chairman of the National Dialogue Committee for Rights and Freedoms, Obeid Haj Ali, said in a press conference on Tuesday that one of the Committee's most important recommendations concerns the postponement of the Darfur referendum. He did not elaborate on the reasons.

The recommendations included the signing of international human rights conventions, the confirmation of the Bill of Rights contained in the 2005 Interim Constitution, and the monitoring of the restructuring and activation of judicial institutions that monitor public freedoms.

Administrative status

In the Darfur referendum, the people living in the western region have the opportunity to opt for the continuation of the current five Darfur states or for a return of Darfur as one large state or province.

The referendum is stipulated in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), signed in July 2011 by the Sudanese government and the Liberation and Justice Movement, a coalition of 19 breakaway factions of the Darfur rebel movements formed the year before.

The referendum was supposed to be held within one year after the signing of the peace accord. Last October, President Omar Al Bashir announced that the referendum will take place in April 2016.

Darfuris living in the camps for the displaced, Sudanese opposition parties, and civil society activists earlier expressed their grave concerns about holding the referendum in the current circumstances.