EL FASHIR, Sudan, July 7 (IslamOnline.net) – The Sudanese government plans to bring home in two months’ time some 370,000 refugees who have fled the war-torn western region of Darfur, Governor of Northern Darfur said on Tuesday, July 6.

"We are planning now to receive 150,000 Darfuris within a month. We have already made grain, food and protection forces available," Governor Othman Mohammad Barko told IslamOnline.net.

"We also rehabilitate places to accommodate 222,000 others within another month. And if plans go as planned, the whole crisis will come to an end in a year."

Barko also hit out at international human rights organizations, saying they accuse Khartoum of being an obstacle to humanitarian efforts and involved in the bloody clashes between the Arab Janjaweed militias and the African rebel groups.

The United Nations has described the Darfur conflict as the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world.

It said at least 10,000 people have died and one million have been driven from their homes since ethnic minority rebels launched a rebellion early last year against government forces.

"Foreign aid is flooding into Darfur since the outbreak of the conflict. There are now 17 voluntary and UN aid organizations operating in Darfur," Barko said.

He said western media made "too much fuss" about nothing on Darfur, lashing out at the support given to rebel groups by foreign powers he did not name.

The Sudanese official said the UN Security Council’s four debates on the crisis over a short period of time is a case in point.

Khartoum announced Tuesday it has lifted all restrictions on humanitarian activities, including customs duties and taxes on humanitarian material for three months.

Interior Minister Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein said the government would "facilitate travel for humanitarian workers, ensure humanitarian aid reaches those in need and guarantee the return of displaced persons to their homes".

Barko said the conflict in Darfur is nothing new and dates back to 1932, when tribes clashed over fertile land and fresh water resources.

"The conflict was triggered by armed clashes between [Arab] shepherds and [African] farmers, on the one hand, and between farmers and government forces, on the other. No political solution to the crisis has been put forward until 2002," he said.

He blamed the negligence of the problem by the successive Sudanese governments, noting that drought and desertification added fuel to the fires.

"The previous governments should have cracked down on rebel groups like the so-called Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which accused Khartoum of supporting the Arab militias," Barko said.

He further played down the ethnic nature of Darfur, saying there are neither pure Africans nor Arabs in the region.

"It is a mix of Arab and African tribes, who all melted away into one pot. I myself of an African descent and 80 percent of the military protection forces out there have African backgrounds," Barko said.

He categorically denied reports that the government formed the Janjaweed militias.

"Army and security forces were deployed to the region and the Janjaweed are a self-styled militia, which declared itself as the armed wing of the [Arab] tribes," he said.

He said the government "stood up firmly" to the Janjaweed, arresting scores of its militants long before the UN warnings.

Sudan reluctantly agreed to about 300 African Union (AU) troops being deployed to protect truce monitors in Darfur.

Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana have been approached to provide troops for the protection force, one of the first of its kind mandated by the AU.