SUDAN: Durable solutions elusive as southern IDPs return and ...

the Masalit and the Fur. The area around Awalla-Nankuseh, near Garsila, hosted more than
50,000 non-Arab communities before the conflict, but is today inhabited by nomadic groups of
Arab origin […]."
According to one UN official, up to 30,000 Arabs from Chad and Niger crossed into Darfur in 2007
where “Most have been relocated by Sudanese Arabs to former villages of IDPs (internally
displaced people) and more or less invited to stay there" (The Independent, 14 July 2007). The
report goes on to say:
"The arrivals have been issued with official Sudanese identity cards and awarded citizenship, and
analysts say that by encouraging Arabs from Chad, Niger and other parts of Sudan to move to
Darfur the Sudanese government is making it "virtually impossible" for displaced people to return
home [...].
Repopulation has also been happening in south Darfur where Arabs from elsewhere in Sudan
have been allowed to move into villages that were once home to local tribes. Aid agency workers
said the Arabs were presented as "returning IDPs"(ibid.).
The report suggests that systematic settlement of the Arab nomads into emptied IDP villages and
provision of citizenship upon their arrival could be seen as a strategic policy of the government in
Khartoum aimed at changing the ethnic makeup of the region and bolstering the NCP election
chances (ibid.).
Complicating the matter even further is the fact that settlets have often succeeded in registering
the land and received legal documents (IWPR, 25 November 2009). That makes them not only de
facto occupants but gives them a legal title over the land. Another consequence of the warrelated
movement of populations is the unravelling of the customary system of land tenure. A
researcher at Tufts University notes that "in many places customary law has broken down
irretrievably, and this is the fundamental problem. It doesn’t matter if you are an IDP or Arab or
who you are, land rights are a real problem. Everyone who has resettled, not only outsiders like
Chadians who have come in…but also any of the IDPs and others who have moved to a different
part of Darfur, none of them have land rights that have a strong foundation in customary law”
(ibid.). Another aggravating factor is the poor record-keeping of the land ownership: “Most land is
not officially registered with the authorities, so the only proof of ownership comes from the
collective knowledge of the local community" (ibid.).
Land issues in the Darfur Peace Agreement
The Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) asserts in a number of points that “ that refugees and IDPs
should have the right to return home and that anyone who had seized land by force during the
hostilities should not automatically retain a right to settle there” (Alex de Waal, 7 March 2008)
Paragraph 159 of the DPA reads:
"All displaced persons and other persons arbitrarily or unlawfully deprived of rights to land shall
have those rights restored to them. No person or group of persons shall be deprived of any
traditional or historical right in respect of land or access to water without consultation and
compensation on just terms" (GoS et al, 5 May 2006).
In the DPA negotiations, the movements (SLA and JEM) delegates insisted “that the agreement
go further, and recognize what they regarded as traditional ownership rights. Paragraph 158
indicates that Sudan’s land laws must be reformed in order to take better account of customary
land rights" (Alex de Waal, 7 March 2008).
De Waal notes that when it comes to land issues there are a number of caveats in the DPA. He
particularly points out the following two that complicate the land matters: (i) the negotiators in
Abuja constructed the history of Darfur’s land systems; and (ii) the voice of the nomadic
Darfurians was poorly represented at the negotiating table - consequently their land claims
remain unresolved (Alex de Waal, 7 March 2008, emphasis added).
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