Militia continue to attack villages in North Darfur’s Kutum

Abbala militiamen have attacked villages in the area north of Kutum, North Darfur, for the second day in a row.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, fleeing villagers reported that militant Abbala riding in 23 vehicles mounted with Dushka machine guns attacked Malam El Hosh at 8 am on Thursday morning. “They shot around them before robbing the villagers of all their belongings and livestock,” one of the villagers said.

“Dud Ali Hasaballah and Juma Ibrahim Gardia were killed,” he reported. “Mansour Khamis Dabo, Ismail Hamed Ali, and Ali Suliman Kosa were seriously wounded.”

The villagers said that the attackers, headed by Omda Mohamed Ali and Mahmoud Wali, then moved to the area of Anka, where they pillaged the villages of Onju, Ammar Jadeed, Hillet Abu Bakar, Hillet Malik Abu Amu, Hillet Adam Khater, and Hillet Mahmoud Ahmed Khater.

After the houses and shops in all the villages were plundered, the militiamen torched them. They continued to Bereidik where they pillaged a number of villages too.

The sources said that the attackers then returned again to the area near Amarei and Anka in the late afternoon.

On Wednesday, the militiamen attacked a number of villages and a nomad settlement in the area of Hillet Nurein. One villager was killed and six people were abducted, including two basic school students.

Rapid Support Forces

The Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) strongly condemned the raids on Wednesday.

SLM-MM spokesman Mohamed Hassan Haroun said in a press statement that the villages north of Kutum were “brutally attacked” by paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by the Sudanese security apparatus. The force consisted of 30 vehicles and launched “barbaric attacks on innocent villagers in the same way the Janjaweed did before”.

The SLM-MM stated it would continue to protect the people in Darfur, and urged the UN to force the Sudanese government to keep to the international covenants it signed.