Photo Credit: Refugees International
02/18/2005

Sudanese officials are trying to persuade people displaced by the conflict in Darfur, like this boy and his family, to return to their villages before the planting season begins in June and July in order to avoid a serious food shortage for 2005 – 2006. But security is not yet good enough to allow sustainable returns, and leaders of the internally displaced say that the government lacks either the will or the ability to make their villages safe.

Some people who believed the government’s claims of security learned the hard way that their return was premature. A small number of families accepted government assistance to return home to Mabruka, but they were attacked within a month and all of their livelihood materials were stolen again.