الأثر الاقتصادي والاجتماعي للنازحين بمنطقة غرب أم درمان

Abstract

The present thesis is intended to investigate, and analyze, the socioeconomic and environmental impacts on the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in West Omdurman, our case study community. The core of the research problem is that a great number of people emigrated, in a very short time, from their original areas (especially from Greater Kordofan), which had been severely hit by drought, and other pushing factors, and settled in West Omdurman, an area of natural pasture grazing and rain-fed cultivation for its original inhabitants (The Gumoyaa). The following are the core questions of our study: 1) To what extent the life of the IDPs has been affected due to being far away from their original areas and neighbouring communities that are culturally different from their owns?. 2) What are the changes that took place in their economic aspects and their daily needs? 3) How is their relationship with the local inhabitants of the receiving area? 4) To what extent were the natural resources affected by IDPs existence in the receiving areas? The researcher followed a descriptive, historical, analytical and statistical approach in dealing with the research problem. A stratified random sample of %11.3 was selected, representing all social strata, the poor, the middle class, and the rich. 100 households were chosen as sample. A questionnaire was distributed in nine villages, which were selected in the sampling. The study depended mainly on some primary data, which had been collected through fieldwork, using different techniques and tools of social research, including questionnaire, interviews, group discussions, and direct field observation. These primary data were supported with other م secondary data obtained from published and unpublished sources, such as the official documents. The present study dealt with the socioeconomic aspect of the IDPs’ life in their original home areas, before displacement, their means of living, their social coping strategies, as well as the socioeconomic life that the IDPs lead in their new environment. The study came to the following conclusions: • Most of the IDPs are from the Kordofanian Kababish subtribes. • Mortality was higher among children and elderly people. • The resultant dense population pressure affected the already meager vital services in the study area. • Some conflicts between the IDPs and the original inhabitants of the area started to escalate. • The IDPs resorted to cutting of trees in order to secure their daily living needs, which resulted in an environmental degradation of the area and a bare land. • Most of IDPs are not willing to return to their original home areas. It could be argued that this study fulfilled its objectives. It managed to reach useful findings concerning the size of IDPs in the study area, and the positive and negative socioeconomic impacts of displacement in that area. This in itself could increase the possibility of reaching realistic solutions of the IDPs’ problem.