KHARTOUM: Instability in Sudan’s Darfur region has prevented top UN officers and European ambassadors from visiting a camp where thousands have fled the worst fighting in a decade, officials said yesterday.
The delegation led by European Union ambassador Tomas Ulicny and Ali Al Za’tari, the chief United Nations official in Sudan, travelled to North Darfur on Wednesday to assess the situation on the ground and meet local authorities.
They had hoped to visit Zam Zam camp, where more than 8,000 people have sought refuge from violence which has surged across the region since late February.
“The state authorities strongly advised not to visit Zam Zam camp” because of security reasons, Ulicny said.
Damian Rance, of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the delegation was told “for security reasons they couldn’t go to Zam Zam”.
Sudanese authorities have regularly cited security factors in denying aid workers access to parts of Darfur and other conflict zones in the country.
Authorities say access restrictions are necessary to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.
Zam Zam camp, about 12 kilometres southwest of El Fasher, is Darfur’s largest. Even before the latest influx, it already hosted more than 100,000 of the two million people uprooted by 11 years of war in Darfur.
A reporter who visited Zam Zam last weekend found the new arrivals sheltering from the desert sun under trees, in the remains of abandoned houses, or under simple huts from bits of cloth and wood.
They said they were calling for food, shelter and other aid after fleeing attacks on their villages.
The African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said yesterday it had received reports of a fresh attack this week, west of El Fasher.
Local sources told peacekeepers that on Monday armed men burned 72 homes and four water pumps at Kobe Assara village.
This caused civilians to flee towards El Fasher and elsewhere, the sources told UNAMID.
It was unclear in this case who carried out the attack.
But UNAMID chief Mohamed Ibn Chambas told the UN Security Council last week that activities of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit were of “particular concern”.
“They have perpetrated attacks on communities,” he said. Ulicny said, “we should be concerned” about the role of the RSF.”
AFP
