Abubaker Idris Adam said he had been extremely upset by a series of reports about his marriage and family life - the most recent of which claimed he had separated from his wife.

"I can never separate from my wife - I believe [only] death can separate us, " he told the Sunday Tribune. "They've no idea about me and my wife.

They just write something unbelievable. They don't even know my name, [or] even the country I come from. I'm from Sudan, not Ghana. Ghana is a country I've just read about in history."

Abubaker Idris Adam was born in the village of Shagra, near the town of al-Fasher, in the north of Darfur, in 1981.

He is Muslim, of the Fur tribe, after which the province is named. His family were shepherds and kept a small farm.

The war in Darfur started in 2002, when local rebel groups attacked a government garrison. The government responded by arming the Janjaweed militia. The Janjaweed have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacring civilians and using rape as a weapon of war, according to observers such as Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group. The United Nations has estimated that over 400,000 people have died and two million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur.

"I left Darfur in May 2003, " said Adam. "I left looking for peace. A lot of people like me left Darfur and Sudan, because of the war."

He travelled north, through the desert, into Libya, and then made his way to Europe.

In Ireland, he applied for asylum and was given hostel accommodation in Longford.

He was over two years living in hostel accommodation while his application for asylum was processed, which he says was "a hard life". Then he met Marie Ward. They married in October 2006, and Adam moved in with Ward and her children.

"I like Longford. I've been living here three years now, and I've a lot of friends here.

I'm very happy with my wife.

[But] I don't like these people writing lying stories about me and my wife."

He is uncomfortable talking about the war in Darfur, and what happened to his family. He starts to talk about the Janjaweed militia, but falters.

The Janjaweed attacked his village, he says, and the people fled, "some of them to Chad, some to Egypt, some to Libya".

His family were separated and he has had no contact with them, though a contact in Oxfam in Darfur has said he will try to trace them.

"I feel bad to talk about this, " he says. "I don't like to speak to the media, but I just want people to know the true story.

Maybe [this] can happen to anyone else and their family."

Asked about adjusting to Irish culture, and also to Traveller culture, he says, "for me, it's the same thing. I have friends from settled or Traveller [communities]. They are all the same thing to me.

"It was very difficult from the beginning. Especially when you don't know the language.

But I learned how to speak English, so it's normal [for me] now.

"It was a hard time when I used to live in the hostel. But since I have been with my wife, everything has been fine."

Asked about his new family, he beams, and says simply, "they like me, I like them myself. I love them a lot."

Marie Ward spoke briefly to the Sunday Tribune. "My kids are afraid to go to school, in case there's photographers hiding and taking photos, " she said.