{"id":176459,"date":"2018-04-23T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dabangasudan.preview.websight.nl\/militiamen-plunder-burn-13-villages-in-darfur-s-jebel-marra\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T15:20:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T15:20:00","slug":"militiamen-plunder-burn-13-villages-in-darfur-s-jebel-marra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dabangasudan.org\/en\/all-news\/article\/militiamen-plunder-burn-13-villages-in-darfur-s-jebel-marra","title":{"rendered":"Militiamen plunder, burn 13 villages in Darfur\u2019s Jebel Marra"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least 30,000 people fled their homes during attacks by large groups of militiamen on 13 villages in northern Jebel Marra on Thursday and Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The villagers fled towards Rokoro, according to statements of the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

After plundering the villages, the attackers set the houses on fire. The newly displaced are in dire need of aid, the SLM-AW stated.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the rebel movement reported fierce fighting between its combatants and government forces in the area of Jaldo in northern Jebel Marra.<\/p>\n

The SLM-AW strongly denied the claims by Sudan’s Arab Baath Party, which said in a statement on Saturday that the militiamen burned the villages in retaliation, after some members of the SLM-AW killed camel herders and stole a number of camels from Tawa village on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In its statement, the Arab Baath Party has called on humanitarian organisations to provide relief to the victims and to rebuild their villages.<\/p>\n

O<\/strong>ffensives<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the dry seasons (roughly between January-and May) in the past years, government forces have made various attempts to eliminate the SLM-AW bases in the Jebel Marra region.<\/p>\n

In March this year<\/a>, rebel sites in East Jebel Marra<\/a> were attacked. The fighting caused an estimated 50,000 people to flee<\/a> their villages in the area.<\/p>\n

Last year, the attacks focused on northwest Jebel Marra<\/a>. According to an RSF spokesman in February 2017<\/a>, Darfur became “<\/strong>free of armed movements, suspects, and outlaws, except for a small [SLM-AW] group stationed at the top of Jebel Marra”.<\/p>\n

In 2016, more than 80,000 people<\/a> were displaced by a major military offensive against the holdout rebels in the mountainous region of the Jebel Marra.<\/p>\n