Lest any think that ethnically-targeted violence in Darfur has ended, recent dispatches from Radio Dabanga and other sources should serve as a sharp correction. Khartoum’s regular forces (Sudan Armed Forces/SAF), as well as its militia allies (especially the Rapid Support Forces/RSF) continue their brutal assaults and predations—often before the very eyes of UN/African union “peacekeeping” force.
Some of the incidents reported below (by Radio Dabanga) are connected to the major military assault the Khartoum regime ordered in rebel-controlled areas near Jebel Marra—but many are not. The sheer geographic diversity of the assaults suggests how violent Darfur as a whole remains, and how terrifyingly insecure the region remains for those displace persons—overwhelmingly of non-Arab/African ethnicity—by violence over the past 15 years.
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That there is no international response of significance to this violence—and that it has been left for a weak, incompetent, and much reduced UN/African Union Mission (UNAMID) to control—is a sign of how invisible the Darfur genocide has become. Once a “human rights cause célèbre,” Darfur has been almost wholly abandoned. And once Khartoum decides to move aggressively with its long-promised plans to dismantle IDP camps, those forced from the camps will be extremely difficult for humanitarian relief workers to access, even as access is already badly compromised by various regime-imposed measures. This has had terrible effects on the roughly 3 million people the UN acknowledges are either internally displaced or refugees in eastern Chad.
More than half a million people have already died from the direct and indirect effects of genocidal counter-insurgency violence. Many tens of thousands of girls and women—yet again, overwhelmingly non-Arab/African—have been the victims of the cruelest sexual violence. And the worst of the dying and suffering may very well be yet to come…
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• Rapid Support Forces militiamen plunder market in Darfur’s Jebel Marra | Radio Dabanga, March 26, 2018 | JEBEL MARRA
Two people were wounded in an attack reportedly by paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on villagers in southern Jebel Marra on Saturday. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, listeners said that RSF troops riding in 25 Land Cruisers, backed by others on more than 70 camels and horses, shot a group of people on their way to the weekly market of Kara on Saturday afternoon.
“When the janjaweed neared the market, they began shooting around them. Adam Waddoura and Amran Ahmed were seriously wounded by the bullets,” a villager reported. “They then proceeded to the market, where they beat the people with their whips and sticks before they plundered the shops and robbed all the customers of their goods, money, mobile phones, and donkeys.
RSF plunder weekly market market in Kara, Jebel Marra
• Darfur: Deadly fighting continues in east and south Jebel Marra | Radio Dabanga, March 23, 2018 | JEBEL MARRA
Fierce fighting is reportedly ongoing across wide areas to the east and south of Darfur’s Jebel Marra, following movement of government forces and militias on rebel-held positions this week.
The fighting has left an unknown number of civilians and combatants dead and wounded, and displaced thousands. On Thursday afternoon, fleeing civilians told Radio Dabanga that Sara Ali Haroun and three of her children Musab, Hassan, and Hussein were killed during the fighting at Sina area southeast of Jebel Marra, which are the last strongholds of the forces of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW).
One of the survivors of the fighting told Radio Dabanga, that yesterday the clashes were renewed north of Sina area which was captured by the government forces from the movement on Wednesday.
He said thousands of families have been displaced from Feina area after government forces and their militias burned all the food stocks in the villages and left the civilians in a very poor humanitarian situation. He appealed to humanitarian and human rights organisations to urgently intervene to save thousands of fleeing civilians and provide food and urgent protection to them.
Some of those displaced by recent violence in Jebel Marra
• Civilians dead, many left homeless as Sudan forces strafe rebel positions in Darfur’s Jebel Marra | Radio Dabanga, March 22, 2018 | JEBEL MARRA
Three civilians were sh
ot dead and 12 others were wounded in an attack launched by government troops and militia at Feina and Dawa areas in East Jebel Marra on Wednesday morning. Witnesses have reported ‘heavy military casualties’ but no exact figures are available yet. The areas are the last stronghold of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) south of Jebel Marra. Reports of many displaced continue to reach this station (see pictures). Ezzeldin Sambala, the movement’s military spokesman, told Radio Dabanga that “the government forces attacked the movement’s positions, which led to the displacement of civilians from their homes. He said that villages were burned and the livestock seized. It is a humanitarian disaster for the people.
More of those displaced by violence in Jebel Marra
• Militiamen besiege Dambar in Central Darfur | Radio Dabanga, March 26, 2018 | DAMBAR
Security tensions in the southeast of Mukjar locality in Central Darfur have caused the closure of the Dambar Market since Friday. “A large group of heavily armed militiamen on motorcycles surrounded the market of Dambar on Friday morning,” a resident of the town reported to Radio Dabanga. “Fearing an attack, the traders immediately closed their shops and stalls.”
The source said that the reasons for the siege are unknown. “They just came out of the blue,” he said.
• Central Darfur sheikh abducted, merchants beaten by Rapid Support Forces | Radio Dabanga, March 20, 2018 | DIMO
The Sheikh of Dimo village, 35 km north of Nierteti in Central Darfur, was beaten and abducted by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on Saturday. The militia also beat two market traders.
• Two women dead, two men injured in South Darfur livestock raid | Radio Dabanga, March | 19, 2018 | GOKO
Two women were killed and two men injured in an attack by gunmen on Goko village north of Nyala, capital of South Darfur on Saturday night. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the gunmen riding camels and horses attacked the village, and stole 81 head of cattle and 35 goats and sheep. When the owners of the livestock confronted them, they opened fire and killed Aisha Yagoub and Maryam Suleiman and seriously wounded Hamid Mousa and Hamid Yousef.
Abduction
On Thursday three displaced people were abducted by militiamen in Central Darfur. The kidnappers have demanded a ransom of SDG 30,000 ($for their release.
El Shafee Abdallah, the coordinator of Central Darfur camps reported that on Thursday militias attacked three displaced people while collecting firewood at Sinan Kar area west of Zalingei, took them to an unknown destination, called their relatives and then demanded a ransom of SDG 30,000 (*$1,666) for the release of Suleiman Ibrahim, Adil Mohamed and Fuoad Mohamed.
Residents of Dimo village told Radio Dabanga that members of the RSF in a land cruiser mounted with a Dushka machinegun attacked Adam Abdelmawla while he was tilling his farm at Dimo village. The reportedly beat him and threw him into the vehicle at gunpoint and took him to an unknown destination. They said they reported the incident to the police at Sagadir near Nierteti.
At the market of Sagadir, RSF elements reportedly beat merchants Abakar Eisa and Haroun Yagoub and tortured them for six hours. Merchants in the market told Radio Dabanga that RSF elements beat Abakar Eisa, a shoe dealer on the pretext that the prices for his shoes are too high. They said the same forces also attacked Haroun Yagoub on charges of buying and supplying sorghum to the armed movements.
• Herders chop-off North Darfur farmer’s hand | Radio Dabanga, March 15, 2018 | JEBEL MARRA / KUTUM
Armed herders have stabbed a farmer and chopped-off his hand in Tawila locality (popularly known as eastern Jebel Marra) in North Darfur on Wednesday. A relative of the victim told Radio Dabanga that three armed herders attacked farmer Mohamed Ahmed Hamid while he was tilling his farm at area Suri area near Khazan Tunjur, ordered him to immediately leave the farm as the area has become a pasture not for farming, and when he refused, one of the herders chopped-off his right hand with a sword. Hamid lost a lot of blood and was taken in critical condition to Tawila Hospital. He said the herders told them that what happened to Hamid is a warning to anyone else who comes to the area to farm or collect hay. The herders reportedly threatened to kill anyone else, and not just cut-off their hand.
Kutum
A number of farmers were injured at Tuma village, 10 km east of Kutum in North Darfur by beatings and flogging by herders. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that on Saturday armed herders riding two Land Cruisers led by Ibrahim Abubaker attacked Tuma village where the residents returned last month as part of the voluntary return, beat and injured them, one of them named El Fadil Mohamed Ali was seriously
• Sudan Armed Forces raid Darfur market: eight held, six injured | Radio Dabanga, March 13, 2018 | DERIBAT / TAWILA / KABKABIYA
Members of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) stationed at Deribat in Darfur’s east Jebel Marra stormed the weekly village market, assaulted the people, arrested eight of them and injured six others on Sunday morning.Residents of Deribat reported that the members of the SAF arrested Yahya Ahmed Hussein, Abulbasher Abdelrazig, Mubarak Haroun, Younis Ali, Abdeljabbar Ali Idris, Kubra Adam Musa, Mariam Ibrahim, and Kaltoum Sharif Adam.
A merchant from the weekly market, which brings together all residents of nearby villages, said that the storming of the market by troops terrorised the shoppers and prompted them to flee the market. He said the troops also attacked the shoppers with rifle butts and daggers causing injuries to Hashim Haroun Abdelkarim, Salim Mohamed Ibrahim, Sara Yagoub Eisa, Musa Yousif Haroun, Mariam Abakar Hussain, and Suleiman Yousif Hamid. He added that the troops also prevented vehicles coming from Nyala in South Darfur and El Fasher in North Darfur from loading goods from the market and forced them to return empty.
Tawila
On Sunday the security services arrested Abdelnasir Abdelrahman Abdallah from the market of Tawila in North Darfur without explanation, took him to the security offices in Tawila and denied him visit by his family members. Activists in Tawila called for his immediate release or trial and allowing his family and lawyers to visit him.
Kabkabiya
Members of the main government Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia arrested two people from Kabkabiya and took them to Sarf Umra in North Darfur on Sunday.
• New settlers assault, drive-off East Darfur returnees | Radio Dabanga | March 15, 2018 | ED DAEIN
Two displaced people who returned to Areit village in Asalaya locality in East Darfur were injured and forcibly returned in an attack by new settlers who refused to accept their return to their area of origin on Sunday.
Sheikhs from camp Neem in Ed Daein told Radio Dabanga that 400 displaced people returned to the village on Sunday according to voluntary repatriation programmes, but the settlers in the village refused their return, assaulted them and injured Adam Yousef and Ahmad Omar Adam who were taken to the state capital Ed Daein for treatment.
The sheikhs said that the displaced returned to camp Neem on Monday morning on the orders of the locality commissioner, Hamdan Adam El Bushra, so as to prevent further violence and clashes.
The camp sheikhs stressed their attachment to their land, and appealed to the government authorities to extend the prestige of the state, provide services in the villages where they had been displaced from, as well as the removal of agricultural lands from the settlers and returning them to the indigenous people.
[The UN–while quick to claim credit for the returns of displaced Darfuris–never acknowledges the failure of these returns, which are far too often impossible to sustain, given the level of intense insecurity–ER]
• SRF condemns government raid on Central Darfur village – Video | Radio Dabanga, March 14, 2018 | ARTALA
The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) has strongly condemned attacks by Sudanese government forces on the inhabitants of Artala village in Central Darfur.
A statement issued by the Revolutionary Front said that the tribal militias of the government and its security services gathered the residents of the village in a humiliating manner after they were confirmed to be free of weapons, beat them with whips and seized their property.
Mohamed Zakariya, the spokesman for the SRF, described what happened to the residents of the village as “a shameful state crime against unarmed people and a blatant violation of the rights of citizenship.”
In its statement, the SRF also condemned the ongoing crackdown on freedoms and the arrest of activists by the security services and reiterated its call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the political detainees and the prisoners of war.
Video at: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/srf-condemns-government-raid-on-central-darfur-village
• Darfur: Government forces, rebels clash in Jebel Marra | Radio Dabanga, March 12, 2018 | JAWA
Three villagers were wounded during clashes between government forces and rebel combatants in South Darfur’s East Jebel Marra on Friday. A relative of one of the victims told Radio Dabanga that Ishag Idris, Daoud Haroun, and Hussein Hamid were injured when they were caught in an exchange of fire between members of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW), and government troops on Friday evening.
“They were hit by bullets in the area of Jawa, 15 km south of Deribat,” he said. “Luckily, they could be transferred to Rabkona, west of Jawa, for treatment.”
Since the start of the war in Darfur in 2003, the area of Jawa has been one of the strongholds of the SLM-AW, that had its base in Jebel Marra itself.
In 2016, more than 80,000 people were displaced by a major military offensive by the Sudanese government against the holdout rebels in the mountainous region of the Jebel Marra.
According to the spokesman for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Sudan’s main militia, in February 2017, Darfur became “free of armed movements, suspects, and outlaws, except for a small group [part of the SLM-AW] stationed at the top of Jebel Marra.” In April that year, after a relative calm for months, the Sudanese air force resumed bombing Jawa because of reported movement of rebel fighters in the area.
http://sudanreeves.org/2018/03/26/genocide-without-end-ethnically-targeted-violence-in-darfur-continues/
(C) 2018 SUDAN Research, Analysis, and Advocacy