More than 331,000 new refugees since January 2013 – "Peace in western Sudan is fiction!"

Since January 2013, more than 331,000 people have fled from the violence in western Sudan. This was reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen on Friday. "While the International Community still believes in the idea of peace in western Sudan, the situation of the civilian population has grown a lot worse in many regions of eastern and southern Darfur," said the STP's Africa-expert, Ulrich Delius. The people are trying to escape from the new clashes between the Sudanese army and the freedom fighters, but also from the inter-ethnic conflicts. At some of the camps, more than 1,200 new refugees arrive every day. 

"The refugees are not only in urgent need of humanitarian aid, but must also be kept safe," demanded Delius. "Above all, the Sudanese government must be urged not to block the international aid workers any longer. In addition, the UNAMID peacekeeping force must be able to access the conflict areas and the camps freely, to estimate the needed supplies."

According to the United Nations, around 150,000 people were forced to flee in the first quarter of 2013 alone. Since then the situation has become much worse, so that 131,900 new refugees had to seek refuge in camps in eastern and southern Darfur. Another 50,000 people from Central Darfur sought refuge in neighboring Chad.

According to reports of refugee representatives, 75,000 new refugees were taken up at the camp El Salam (South Darfur) since April 22 – and 11,170 people sought refuge at Camp El Neem (East Darfur) since April 11. Camp Dreige (South Darfur) took up 5,700 refugees since April 12. More than 40,000 people asked admission at Camp Kalma (South Darfur).

At the end of 2012, there were at least 1.4 million Darfuris living in Western Sudan as internally displaced persons. They had tried to escape from the beginning of the genocide in 2003 or were expelled after their villages had been destroyed by pro-government militias. About 4,500 villages had been burnt down during the genocide.

In April 2013, Qatar held an international conference on redevelopment plans for Darfur – against which several refugees representatives had protested. They claimed that safety must be provided before any redevelopment.