THE JOINT United Nations/African Union (Unamid) peacekeeping mission has warned of a build-up of Sudanese army and rebel troops in North Darfur.
The build-up is reportedly under way in the Shangil Tobay region, where a UN-run camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) housing 2,000 people is located.
“There have been no reports of armed confrontation but we have observed armed personnel and vehicles moving into the area,” said Saiki Kemal, Unamid’s spokesman in Darfur.
According to a Unamid patrol team, some 70 per cent of IDPs there have already left the camp.
“The civilian population is a bit jittery. When people start arriving with guns they take precautions. They are not going to sit and wait for something to happen.”
Shangil Tobay is 70km (44 miles) south of the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, a government stronghold and hub for aid workers and peacekeepers.
The Sudanese government and Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) signed a ceasefire deal in February.
It was hoped this would bring an end to the conflict in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million forced from their homes since 2003.
But peace talks between both sides appear to have broken down, as Khartoum looks to capitalise on JEM’s weakening support base by deploying troops in the areas it controls in west Darfur.
“Now that the elections are over, the government is under a lot less scrutiny and pressure so it feels like it has a free hand to engage in these sorts of activities,” said EJ Hogendoorn of the International Crisis Group in Nairobi.
As the region’s longest-established and most-organised rebel group, the JEM originally positioned itself as the representative voice of Darfuris.
However, support has begun to drift to a rival coalition of rebel groups, which claims to be more representative of Darfuris than JEM, which is dominated by the Zaghawa ethnic group.
The Sudanese government now looks to be playing the two groups off against each other.
To add to the JEM’s woes, Sudanese officials have asked Interpol to arrest their leader, Khalil Ibrahim, for planning an attack in Omdurman in 2008. The JEM has in turn threatened to go back to war with Khartoum.
“This is just another way of sticking it to the JEM,” said Mr Hogendoorn.
“If the Sudanese government really wanted to, they could defeat them. The JEM are not in a very advantageous military position.”