Sudanese organise aid, collect funds for West Darfur newly displaced

Apart from organising solidarity rallies, activists in Sudan have begun to raise money to assist the tens of thousands of people who fled attacks on the two Kerending camps and surroundings in El Geneina, West Darfur.

Many of the newly displaced are accommodated in schools and mosques, or in makeshift shelters near government institutions in El Geneina.

Others are surviving in the open, while temperatures are low, activists told Radio Dabanga.

They expressed their concerns about the health situation of the newly displaced, referring to the lack of adequate latrines, and appealed “to all regional and international aid organisations to intervene and help the affected people”.

They added that yesterday Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Hemeti visited Kerending, where they assessed the extent of the damage inflicted on the camps, and listened to the testimonies of residents about the attacks.

Support

Osman Jaafar, the director-general of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society reported that a load of urgent first-aid items has been dispatched to El Geneina to assist the wounded and accommodate the displaced.

Yesterday, El Geneina Hospital partially opened again. It was entirely closed for four days after it was attacked and the doctors were threatened. Doctors reported from the hospital that the emergency department started receiving patients, while the rest of the departments are still closed.

The National Campaign for the Prevention of Epidemics called on all Sudanese inside and outside the country to provide support for an aid convoy to be despatched to El Geneina on Sunday.

The convoy will provide tents, blankets, clothes, and medical assistance to the affected people.

In other donation campaigns organised inside and outside Sudan for the benefit of the victims of El Geneina, activists collected about SDG 219,000 ($ 4,870*). Another campaign raised about $ 1,300 within hours.

Resistance committees in the districts of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, set up a tent at the central market to collect money for humanitarian aid to the victims of El Geneina.

Memorandum

In Khartoum and Khartoum North, several rallies took place on Thursday in solidarity with the West Darfur affected. The demonstrators gathered in front of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Justice, condemning the events in El Geneina and the bloodshed in Darfur.

They raised banners expressing their solidarity with the victims and their families, and calling for peace and security, and chanted “Where is our beloved peace?” and “You arrogant racist, the whole country is Darfur [ya unsuri el maghrour, kul el balad Darfur].

They submitted a memorandum to the Council of Ministers calling for the dismissal of the West Darfur military governor and members of the security committee, and to “immediately” hold them accountable, in addition to Col Mousa Ambelo, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander in the state, and “all others involved in the recent crimes”.

The memorandum also demanded that the RSF, Sudan’s main government militia which since August last year falls under the command of the “Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces”, be withdrawn from Darfur, the formation of an independent international investigation, the restoration of the Rule of Law and the lifting of impunity, the return of the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid) to West Darfur, and the provision of relief to the people affected by the attacks.

*As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS))

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