Sudanese government allows Arab refugees to settle in the villages of the displaced Darfurs

Arab refugees from neighbouring Chad work the land near Tulus, Darfur, the land that had belonged to the displaced Sudanese.

Three years after it was burned to the ground, the village of Tulus in Darfur is springing back to life.

Corn and sesame sprout from fertile fields. Children play around newly built huts. Smoke from cooking fires again rises from the land.

The problem is, those rebuilding Tulus are not the original inhabitants, who were chased away by pro-government Sudanese militias in 2004 and are afraid to return. Instead, their place has been taken by Arabs from Chad, who recently crossed the border to flee violence in their own country.

"It's comfortable here,'' said Sheik Algooni Mohammed Zeean, 42, leader of 150 Chadian Arabs who in March settled on a grassy plain not far from the ruins of the village's abandoned homes and school. Gesturing toward the fields bearing their first harvest in Sudan, he smiled. "I feel like this is my home now.''

Over the last six months, nearly 30,000 Chadian Arabs have crossed into Sudan, many of them settling on land owned by Darfur's pastoral tribes that were driven into displacement camps, aid groups say.

This migration quickly has become the latest obstacle to peace in western Sudan, drawing the attention of international observers and protests from those displaced from Darfur, who accuse the Sudanese government of orchestrating an "Arabization'' scheme by repopulating burned-out villages with foreigners.

"This is a government plot to give our land to Chadian Arabs,'' said Mohammed Abakar Mohammed Adam, 27, a farmer from the village of Bechabecha, which was abandoned after armed nomadic tribes known as "janjaweed,'' believed to be backed by the government, attacked in 2003. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>