Thousands of displaced Sudanese being relocated from crowded camp, UN says

Half of the estimated 120,000 internally displaced persons in the swollen Kalma Camp in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region will be relocated to three new sites early next month, the United Nations reported today.

During a visit to the area on Monday and Tuesday, Manuel Aranda da Silva, the Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Sudan, expressed satisfaction at the ongoing process of relocation of IDPs, for whom three new relocation sites have been identified. The sites would cater to 60,000 IDPs, with 20,000 at each site, and the relocation would be carried out in the first weeks of January.

Mr. Aranda da Silva, who is in charge of humanitarian affairs and development, met with Sudanese local authorities and representatives of the UN agencies, including those working at Kalma Camp.

Meanwhile, with 15 new cases of polio reported, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said its anti-polio vaccination campaign for Sudan would run from 10 to12 January and would target 5.9 million children.

As of today there were 94 cases of polio in the country, with 40 of those in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.