FPU In Darfur: Policing The Desert

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The view of Kalma from Google Earth shows few main roads suitable for motor vehicles.

According MSF, 90,000 displaced people live in the Kalma IDP Camp. It is likely that the shelters are centered around the facilities of aid agencies.

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The escort program of the FPUs is vital to the IDPs of Kalma because it enables them (especially women) to venture outside the camp to collect firewood without the fear of being assaulted.

IDPs continue to venture further and further away from the camp as fire wood near the camps is used up.

Vehicles are a necessity due to the greater distances being traveled for fire wood and because Darfur’s mostly open terrain. Vehicles can provide cover from hostile fire and enable rapid egress of UN personnel and IDPs back to the camp.

Newly deployed FPUs based in Zalingei and El Geniena, Darfur are providing security for IDPs and modeling their patrols on the Bangladeshi FPU in Kalma.

Black circles indicate locations of IDP camps

Red circles indicate locations of FPU stations.