KHARTOUM, 26 August 2008 (IRIN) - Sudanese police continued to surround one of the largest sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Darfur on 26 August, a day after gunfire caused dozens of injuries and, according to some sources, numerous fatalities.

"As I speak with you now, there are 30 dead bodies in front of me," Salah Abdullah Hassan, an official inside Kalma camp, told IRIN by telephone. Hassan read out a list of names of people he said had been killed the previous day by police. They ranged in age from 11 to 60, he said.

Sudanese authorities said nobody was killed in Kalma and the police had entered the camp to confiscate illegal arms and had only used their own weapons when they had come under fire from camp residents.

Some 49 wounded people were evacuated from the camp to a hospital in the nearby town of Nyala, according to the UN/African Union force in Darfur, UNAMID, and the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs a clinic in the camp, home to some 90,000 IDPs.

Some of the wounded in the camp refused to leave, according to UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni. "They might have participated in the fighting," he added.

Government forces entered Kalma Camp in July, saying they had seized a variety of ammunition and weapons including canons, mortars, a machine-gun and other weapons and ammunition. According to the Sudan Tribune newspaper, the latest was the fifth government raid of the camp.

"This is not new. It happened last year. It could happen again," Mezni told IRIN by telephone. "It is high time to find a lasting solution for Kalma camp."

"We are doing our utmost"

Abdullah said 50 to 100 families fled the site after the shooting and were staying in a school in nearby Bilel.

In a statement released to the Sudan News Agency (SUNA), the Security Committee of South Darfur State said it had a search permit from UNAMID to enter the site, after receiving "confirmed information about the arrival of big quantities of weapons into the camp".

According to SUNA, the statement said five policemen were injured after receiving fire from inside the camp. "The police force was compelled to respond to the attacking elements, but not more than seven citizens at the displaced camp were injured."

Mezni said the government has since asked UNAMID to organise a meeting gathering all stakeholders to find a lasting solution to the problem. He said regular patrols were continuing, but added: "We don't have the required force to increase. But we are doing our utmost."

Restraint

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Ameerah Haq, issued a statement urging restraint and calling for an immediate humanitarian corridor for the injured to be evacuated. "The United Nations is gravely concerned," she said. "Such actions severely threaten the safety and security of civilians who have a right to protection under International Humanitarian Law."

The US State Department called on the government to thoroughly investigate the incident.

MSF said in a statement: "This incident puts increased strain on a population already struggling to cope with flooding that has recently destroyed up to 6,000 shelters".

ha/js/am/sr

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

IRIN news