| |
Sudan forces tighten grip on Darfur camp
Khartoum—Sudan boosted forces outside a volatile camp
for displaced people in Darfur on Tuesday as fears rose of new armed
clashes and rebels said the death toll had risen from fighting a day
earlier. “It seems last night there was a build up of security forces
around the camp,” one UN official told AFP.
A community leader inside Kalma, Adam Mohamed, told AFP by telephone
that more government security vehicles were surrounding the camp,
where living conditions were miserable and homes had been washed away
by rain.
Ahmed Abdel Shafie, a commander in the nebulous rebel Sudan Liberation
Army (SLA), said the death toll from clashes between camp residents
and police on Monday had risen from 27 to 36, with all the victims now
identified.
The dead included at least five women and two children, he said.
“The situation is very bad. The people are really suffering,” he told
AFP by telephone. He said people lacked medication and having to cope
with heavy rain, and lashed out at UNAMID for not doing anything to
stop the police raid.
Reports of the casualties varied and there has been no confirmation of
the numbers of dead from aid workers or UN peacekeepers.
“UNAMID evacuated 47 wounded IDPs (internally displaced people),
mostly women and children, and some men to hospital in Nyala last
night,” said Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for the joint African
Union-UN peacekeeping force.
“We have information about other wounded IDPs, mostly young men, who
refused to be evacuated for fear of being arrested,” he added.
UN military and police commanders were huddled in meetings on Tuesday
to determine the next course of action.
UNAMID has struggled to provide security in Sudan’s war-racked western
region of Darfur, more than five years after conflict broke out, with
just over a third of the 26,000 troops they have been promised. —AFP |
