EL FASHER/MURNEI

(

24 Apr

.) -

An estimated 8,900 internally displaced people are in need of water and sanitation assistance, as well as food, health services, emergency shelter and non-food relief supplies, in Shagra area, west of El Fasher city.

According to the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) on 17 April, these newly displaced people, who are mostly women and children, fled their homes in rural areas of El Fasher locality in North Darfur. The areas were plundered by the government's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The displaced currently share resources -including food- with the community in Shagra. In response to their needs, the government has distributed 4,000 kilos of millet, 470 kilos of sugar, 100 kilos of lentils, and cooking utensils, the HAC stated. Unicef has distributed nutrition supplement cartons and sleeping mats for children.

The government RSF was formed in August last year under the command of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and are locally namedandnbsp;Janjaweedandnbsp;militiamen. “They are in Darfur to fight the armed opposition movements,” Maj. Gen. Abbas Abdel Aziz, the RSF commander, stated late last February.

Relief items to Saraf Umra's displaced

Meanwhile, some 1,900 newly displaced people in Kereinik locality should receive non-food relief supplies this week, according to the international World Relief (WR) organisation.

WR has submitted its request for distribution to the UNHCR in Khartoum. It has registered almost 2,000 people in the villages of Hashab, Um Tajok, Abu Joka, and Sanidadi who are in need of relief supplies. They have fled their homes in North Darfur's Saraf Umra area following attacks of the militias under the command of Musa Hilal in early March this year.

According to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA),andnbsp;an estimated 105,000 newly displaced in North Darfur have returned to their areas of origin over the past week. However, “224,000 people remain displaced across the Darfur region”, since they had to flee attacks on their villages in North and South Darfur since February this year.

File photo: Market area of Saraf Umra, North Darfur, with some burnt buildings at the background as a result of the violence at the start of March 2014 (Albert Gonzand#225;lez Farran, Unamid)

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