NYALA (Sudan): The sheikhs sit on mats in the roasting sun drawing up lists of homeless families. Younger men push wooden poles into the hard ground to make frames on which to drape bits of cloth or sacking for shade. Children and their mothers huddle beside piles of pots, and a sack or two of grain.

A miserable new cycle of displacement in Darfur is under way. Driven from their villages by Arab Janjaweed militia three years ago, thousands of Africans were forced out of Kalma camp last week by armed thugs from two other African tribes.

With some 90,000 residents, Kalma was one of the largest refuges for displaced people in Darfur. People from widely differing areas shared their wretchedness together, and when there were disputes, the sheikhs’ tribal courts managed to settle them.

But in the last few months, politics have brought tensions to boiling point. The latest issue is whether Darfur’s rebel groups should take part in peace talks with the government, which start today.

“Don’t talk to me about the peace talks,” snapped Zeinab Hassan Nahar, a representative of a women’s committee. “We have to concentrate on our immediate issues. We’ve lost our homes. We had to escape in a hurry, leaving our food and everything.” Their houses were then set on fire. Like most of the several hundred families camping in the open in daytime temperatures of over 38C (100F), Zeinab is from the Zaghawa tribe. The people she blames for the trouble are the Fur and a smaller allied group, the Dajo.

The Sudanese authorities control checkpoints leading to Kalma but have not dared work in the camp for months. Aid agencies have also had to suspend their work since the latest flare-up.

“The Fur people set up a military committee with armed groups in sector two of Kalma camp several months ago. They started arresting people. Their leader, Abdullah Broush, brings them guns. The Zaghawa have no guns. If we had, we could have defended ourselves,” Zeinab Hassan said.

Standing near her with a group of other men, Asadiq Idris said 17 people had been killed but they had not been able to retrieve their bodies for burial.

The Fur’s hero is Abdul Wahid al-Nur, the leader of a rebel group which rejected last year’s peace agreement with the government in Khartoum, and is boycotting the latest talks to negotiate a new one.

An internal UN report says efforts by government forces and police to enter the camp last week were met with violent resistance and they withdrew. African Union soldiers also withdrew.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service