The Sudanese government began implementing a project which will cost 327 million pounds to resettle about 100,000 Sudanese pastoralists who have returned from the states of South Sudan to Sennar state of the Republic of Sudan.
Engineer Kamal Ali Mohammed, the former minister of irrigation and a member of one of the returning nomadic groups, said in a press statement following a meeting with the Sudanese vice president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha at the presidential palace the day before yesterday that the number of nomads returning from the south reached 24,000. He put the number of livestock returned at about half a million head of the total two million head.
Sennar has always had a high population of nomads, many of whom traditionally migrate within the north, either westard into White Nile state or southward into Blue Nile state, while other migration routes run into South Sudan’s Upper Nile state.
Insecurity in the border areas has made the migrations more dangerous and in some cases unfeasible. Earlier this week a number of the pastoralists along the border between Upper Nile and Blue Nile areas complained of insecurity which disabled the movement of pastoralists in the region.
One of the pastoralists called Mohammed Osman told Radio Tamazuj that thieves in the area were using sophisticated weapons and targeting herders.
Osman added that since November last year more than a hundred cattle keepers were killed by unknown assailants and more than forty were wounded.
According to state media, the projects in Sennar were initiated to bring stability to these nomads include development projects, services and housing. Engineer Kamal pointed out that a committee has developed a plan for special development programs including pastoral farms, agro-forestry, housing and provision of services such as education, health and veterinary services.
The government is also planning to inventory all the forests and grasslands and then re-distribute them.
In the same context, Kamal said that they are going to support the Um-Albenin research center and provide more veterinary laboratories, plant fodders and develop agriculture systems in the area. He disclosed that they have also allocated an area of 4000 acres in the Biri area of Sennar state to the displaced nomads.
The former minister explained that the projects will be a model kind and can be used by the pastoralists returning from South Sudan, Blue Nile, South Kordofan and South Darfur.’
Photo by Radio Tamazuj