A Unamid force of about 500 military troops arrived at Kalma camp, located southeast of South Darfur’s capital of Nyala, on Saturday.
“The soldiers arrived in armoured vehicles, loaded with various weapons, and mounted with Dushka machine-guns,” Saleh Eisa Mohamed, secretary general of Kalma camp, reported to Radio Dabanga.
“On Tuesday, the Unamid force commander, a brigadier general, convened a meeting with representatives of the displaced, including women and youth leaders. He informed them that they came in order to protect the displaced inside and outside the camp.”
“The force commander requested the camp leaders to provide them with the names of the places where the displaced usually collect water, or firewood and straw, the location of farmlands they tend, and the places where bricks are produced.”
The displaced in general collect water and firewood from the areas of Dama, Mireir, and Birkatouli, some 40 km north of the camp, as well as from Taisha and Girein Fawri, 50 km east of the camp, or Reel, Marla, Hejer, Tono, and Um Gunja, 50 km south of Kalma camp, Saleh explained.
He said that the Unamid commander promised them they soon will develop a plan to protect the population of Kalma camp against attacks by armed robbers and other gunmen.
The population of Kalma camp not only suffers from assaults by militiamen in the region, but recently also from repeated raids and searches by security forces. The displaced staged a demonstration against the raids on 5 September, whereupon the security forces killed four displaced and wounded dozens of others during their attempt to disperse the protesters with tear gas and live ammunition. The following day four of the injured died of their wounds.
File photo