Camp heads deny Darfuri refugees returned

Officials of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), and West Darfur State announced that 48,000 Darfuris have voluntarily returned from the refugee camps in eastern Chad to West Darfur during the past days. The camp heads in eastern Chad strongly deny this. The heads of the Touloum, Oure Cassoni, Kounongou, and Farchana refugee camps in eastern Chad confirmed to Radio Dabanga that no Darfuri refugees had returned to their homeland. Both Adam Suleiman, the head of Oure Cassoni refugee camp, and Mohamed Dafalla, the head of Farchana camp, described the news about the returns as “mere propaganda of the ruling National Congress Party, and the DRA”. The chairman of the DRA Council, Sultan Saad Abdel Rahman Bahreldin, last week announced that tens of thousands of Darfuris had left the eastern Chad refugee camps, and returned to their homeland. “Some 48,000 Darfuri refugees returned to six villages in West Darfur State lately, in response to the kind invitation of the native administrations of the Dar Masalit.” According to Sudan News Agency (Suna) on Wednesday, Sultan Bahreldin said that the vast number of returnees required a speedy provision of essential services to them. He pointed to the inability of the DRA to transport the relief items it provided, and called for support to deliver the relief to the returnees “as soon as possible”. West Darfur is home (dar) to the Masalit tribe. File photo: Touloum camp in eastern Chad Related: Darfur refugees in eastern Chad close to starving (23 July 2014)