Attacks and violence continue in Darfur and Kordofan regions

Eight separate incidents of attacks on civilians in Darfur and Kordofan regions were reported to Radio Dabanga this week, in addition to reports that an "investigation force" of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized four Zamzam camp residents last week. 

The High Sit-In Committee of the Zamzam camp south of El Fasher accused a lieutenant colonel of the paramilitary RSF of seizing Ayoub Zakaria, Suleiman Haroun, Daoud Kheirallah, and Salem Kabashi. He took them to an unknown destination before handing them over to the central police station in El Fasher, according to the press statement on Monday. 

The committee accused the RSF of filing “malicious complaints” against the four displaced people. Camp activist Jadallah told Radio Dabanga that a committee from the camp administration went to the Central Police Section of El Fasher on Sunday to discuss the matter with the authorities and try to release the detainees. 

The Security Committee of North Darfur issued an explanatory statement in which it said that an RSF “investigation force” detained the four men and took them to the Central Police Station. They filed a complaint under the Weapons and Ammunition Law against two of them on December 7 and another complaint under the Narcotic Substances Law against the two others on December 8.  

The committee said the accused are still in custody pending investigation. The statement stressed the importance of imposing the Rule of Law in the state. 

Attacks in Darfur 

Mohamed Mousa was shot dead in the North Darfur capital El Fasher on Monday. The motive is not clear, sources told Radio Dabanga. The relatives of the victim protested against insecurity in the city by blocking the road between the livestock market and the El Fasher Grand Market.  

In a separate incident, taxi driver Siddig Abdelrahman was stabbed with a knife by the three men he was driving to El Fasher Airport. The men tried to seize his car. 

In Gireida, South Darfur, market trader Abdallah Ismail and rickshaw driver Abubakr Abdallah sustained bullet wounds during an armed robbery on Monday.  

On the same day, a group of shooters robbed farmers transporting their crops from East Darfur to Gireida. The attackers intercepted the lorry they were riding in and robbed money from the farmers. In addition, they stole sacks of beans, sorghum, and millet, a listener told Radio Dabanga. 

Farmers living in Yasin in East Darfur continue to experience security issues that threaten the current agricultural season. On Friday, three farmers were attacked in the area of Tor Ta’an.  

Sources told Radio Dabanga that crops of sorghum, millet, and fava beans are being destroyed in Malawi and neighbouring villages in the locality at gunpoint by herders who graze their cattle on the farmland. There is a complete absence of security forces, said the farmers, demanding the East Darfur government and Security Committee secure the farms during the harvest season. 

Two were killed and 12 were wounded in attacks in Central Darfur last week, whilst three displaced people were kidnapped and others were robbed in North Darfur. Especially farmers and displaced people were targeted. 

Darfur has a long history of strife between nomadic Arab herders and non-Arab African herders or sedentary farmers. Arab tribesmen were recruited by the previous regime of dictator Omar Al Bashir to join the Janjaweed militias. Al Bashir employed these Arab militias to repress a revolt over ethnic marginalisation in the region, mainly targeting non-Arab African farmers. 

Kordofan violence 

A 10-year-old boy was injured when shooters shot at a passenger vehicle in West Kordofan on Monday. The vehicle was on its way to Abu Koa’ area of ​​Kadam district in El Senut locality from the town of En Nahud, West Kordofan.  

A witness told Radio Dabanga that a group of armed men opened fire on an open box car near the Wells of Jadeen on the same day. 

A man was killed and another wounded by armed people shooting at a passenger vehicle in Abu Kershola, South Kordofan, on Friday. According to Radio Dabanga sources, shooters ambushed a commercial vehicle on the way from the market of Sidra to Abu Kershola town. They robbed passengers of their belongings and fled. 

Incidents of tribal fighting in West Kordofan increased earlier in the year. In early June, Radio Dabanga reported about fierce fighting in Lagawa which left nine people dead. End May, at least six people were killed in the violence that broke out between two Hamar clans. At least 24 people were killed and others were injured in an ambush in ​​​​Abu Zabad, West Kordofan, on December 10.

There has been a mass influx of people fleeing violence in the West Kordofan areas of Lagawa and Tema to the newly established camp for the displaced near Delling in northern South Kordofan, with humanitarian conditions in the camp are described as “worse than dire.”