Deputy High Commissioner in Sudan's Darfur region
Briefing Notes, 9 November 2007
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 9 November 2007, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone is in Darfur today as part of a four-day mission to Sudan to review UNHCR's operations for refugees and internally displaced persons. He arrived in El Geneina, West Darfur, yesterday afternoon following a day of meetings in Khartoum with Sudanese officials. Today, he is scheduled to visit IDP camps in West Darfur.
Earlier in Khartoum, Johnstone discussed with senior Sudanese officials the case of the attempted removal of 103 children from Chad to France by an NGO and roundly condemned the action, saying it was against humanitarian principles and international norms. Johnstone, in a meeting with Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Hassabo Mohamed Abdel Rahman, discussed UNHCR's role in helping the Chadian authorities identify the children and trace their families. Johnstone and Abdel Rahman told media they hoped a thorough investigation into the attempt to remove the children from Chad would bring to light the full facts of this disturbing incident. They also expressed the hope that the children could be promptly reunified with their families.
The Deputy High Commissioner also expressed cautious optimism following his Khartoum meetings that UNHCR could in the near future extend its activities to North and South Darfur. In West Darfur, in a difficult security environment, UNHCR concentrates on providing protection assistance to some of the more than 700,000 internally displaced people.
Johnstone travels on Saturday to Abéché in eastern Chad, where UNHCR cares for some 240,000 refugees from Darfur in 12 camps and provides assistance to some of the 180,000 Chadians internally displaced by conflict and insecurity. He will also discuss with UNHCR staff and partners some of the lessons learned from the Zoe's Ark incident and how to promote respect for international laws on the protection of children.
The Nubians in Kenya
In the late 1880s, Nubians from Sudan were conscripted into the British army. The authorities induced them to stay in Kenya by granting them homesteads and issuing them British colonial passports. The Nubians named their settlement near Nairobi, Kibra, or "land of forest." In 1917, the British government formally declared the land a permanent settlement of the Nubians. Since independence, Kenyan Nubians have had difficulty getting access to ID cards, employment and higher education and have been limited in their travel. In recent years, a more flexible approach by the authorities has helped ease some of these restric¬tions and most adult Nubians have been confirmed as Kenyan citizens, but children still face problems in acquiring Kenyan citizenship.
The Nubians in Kenya
Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote
Ahead of South Sudan's landmark January 9, 2011 referendum on independence, tens of thousands of southern Sudanese in the North packed their belongings and made the long trek south. UNHCR set up way stations at key points along the route to provide food and shelter to the travellers during their arduous journey. Several reports of rapes and attacks on travellers reinforced the need for these reception centres, where women, children and people living with disabilities can spend the night. UNHCR has made contingency plans in the event of mass displacement after the vote, including the stockpiling of shelter and basic provisions for up to 50,000 people.
Southerners on the move before Sudanese vote
Darfuri Refugees in Chad: No end in Sight
More than six years after the beginning of the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, more than a quarter-of-a-million refugees remain displaced in neighbouring Chad. Most of the refugees are women and children and many are still traumatized after fleeing across the border after losing almost everything in land and air raids on their villages.
Families saw their villages being burned, their relatives being killed and their livestock being stolen. Women and girls have been victims of rape, abuse and humiliation, and many have been ostracized by their own communities as a result.
The bulk of the refugees live in 12 camps run by UNHCR in the arid reaches of eastern Chad, where natural resources such as water and firewood are scarce. They have been able to resume their lives in relative peace, but all hope one day to return to Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of their compatriots are internally displaced.
In eastern Chad, UNHCR and other agencies are helping to take care of 180,000 internally displaced Chadians, who fled inter-ethnic clashes in 2006-2007. Some families are starting to return to their villages of origin only now.
Darfuri Refugees in Chad: No end in Sight
Sudan: A Perilous Route
Kassala camp in eastern Sudan provides shelter to thousands of refugees from Eritrea. Many of them pass through the hands of ruthless and dangerous smugglers.
Sudan: Heading for a New Home
UNHCR is offering to help move hundreds of people from Sudan to newly independent South Sudan, where they will build new lives. Almost 250 families with ties to the south are waiting for a ride.
South Sudan: Blue Nile Refugees
Refugees are streaming in from Sudan's Blue Nile Region into South Sudan, many to Doro Camp.
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