Sudan: Resurgence of massacres in Darfur

In a camp for displaced people in Chedad, Darfur, in February 2021, after a village was attacked.

(Illustrative photo) © Abdulmonam Eassa/RFI

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In Sudan, the attack on a village populated by Masalits, by Arab militiamen, in the state of Western Darfur, left between 150 and 200 dead last weekend, according to various humanitarian sources.

The fighting spread, this Monday, April 25, to the capital, El-Geneina, from where part of the inhabitants fled and where the situation was still confused, at the end of the day, according to local media.

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These deadly battles are the latest episode in a series of settling of scores between communities fighting for control of territories.

Witnesses say that there were several hundred of them, Sunday at dawn, organized to take back, by violence, control of the locality of Kerenik, a three-hour track from the state capital, El-Geneina

In pick-ups, motorbikes and on horseback, the “janjawids” began by encircling the village.

Their method is known: destroy everything, kill and scare away to prevent life from resuming.

But once again they clashed harshly with the Massalit farmer self-defense militias, now prepared for such onslaughts.

This new attack was reportedly carried out in retaliation for the murder of two Arab shepherds by Massalit militiamen last week.

Several connoisseurs of the region explain that this locality, already bereaved last December, is a known and recurring target of Arab militiamen.

The latter seek to prevent the permanent settlement of displaced persons who returned to settle on their land after the fall of the regime of Omar El-Bashir, while they themselves live there and graze their herds there.

Read also: Sudan: more than a hundred people killed in violence in Darfur

Because in this remote corner of Sudan, close to the border with Chad, the Arab and Massalit populations clash above all for water points and pastures, explains an observer, " 

 ", he said.

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• Sudan