Panafrican News Agency

IDP gather at the vicinity of the newly established UNAMID base

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has complained that hundreds of civilians, mostly children and women, have fled fighting in Jebel Mara area, and gathered around its base in the area.

In a press note received by PANA in Khartoum, UNAMID revealed that in the evening of 15 June 2018, displaced persons started gathering outside UNAMID’s newly established Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in the Golo locality, of the Jebel Marra area, Central Darfur.

“By the next day, 16 June, 305 IDPs, including 200 children and 85 women, were outside the TOB and had started erecting temporary shelters.” UNAMID said in the note on Wednesday, a few hours after a group of western countries lamented the renewal of fighting in Jebel Mara area and threatened punitive action against the perpetrators.

The peacekeeping mission said it staff in Golo Temporary Operating Base provided protection and water to the displaced “as well as first aid to an IDP woman who gave birth” near the base.

It added that displaced people informed UNAMID that they were fleeing from villages in Jebel Mara where fighting has been reported, including Gubbo, Gur Lumbung, Kawara, Saboon El Fag, Abuloto, Ujongole, Kara, Jari, Buju Buju and Wira.

The peacekeepers said they were liaising with OCHA and local authorities to address the humanitarian needs of the displaced.

It confirmed that all the IDPs have now been relocated to a primary school in Golo town.
UNAMID noted that clashes between government forces and Sudanese Liberation Army -Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW) elements, continued in Jebel Mara area between 13 and 16 June 2018, with casualties on both sides as well as further civilian displacement.

It gave no figure of the causalities but said local sources reported that some houses were destroyed, civilians were killed and injured, and others went missing during the clashes.
-0- PANA MOAR/ 20June2018