Chad + 1 more
SUDAN-CHAD: KHARTOUM ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR RETURN OF DARFUR REFUGEES
The government of Sudan has announced that
it will launch a plan to facilitate the return of over 200,000 Sudanese
refugees now living in eastern Chad, who have fled over the past six years
of the ongoing internal conflict. The Sudanese minister of humanitarian
affairs, Abdel Baqi al-Jailani, said that the government has put together
along with some UN agencies such as the International Migration Organization
(IOM) and the Chadian government, a program that will make 2010 into the
year "of the great voluntary return" of Sudanese refugees from
Chad. The minister said that Khartoum "intends to regulate the conditions
of Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad, seeing as the end of the war in Darfur
no longer warrants a reason for them to stay there". There are over
200,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad, according to a UN census; this issue
is one of the main points in the dialogue agenda between the governments
of Chad and Sudan, which after years of tensions and accusations (starting
with the support given to their respective internal rebellions), in the
last months have been trying to rebuild their diplomatic relations. Today,
military delegations from both countries are meeting in N'djamena to discuss
border security issues. [AB]