3,000 displaced by South Darfur attacks

The bloody attacks on villages southwest of Kass in South Darfur on Sunday have led to the displacement of thousands of people. Most of them fled to the square in front of the Unamid base in the area, while hundreds took refuge in a school in Kass.

Malik Haroun, member of the Resistance Committees active in the neighbourhoods of Kass, told Radio Dabanga that about 3,000 displaced villagers, most of them women and children, gathered in front of the Unamid base in Kass three days ago, and described their humanitarian conditions as bad and miserable, noting that the displaced people reside in makeshift shelters that do not protect them from the sun or rain.

Unamid released pictures of villagers fleeing along roads and across rivers in search of safety.

Haroun called for an urgent investigation into the attacks on Boronga and surrounding villages providing security and protecting the agricultural season so that the new displaced people could return to their areas and be able to continue their cultivation.

The new, civilian governor of South Darfur, Mousa Mahdi, visited Kass locality on Tuesday and held meetings with members of the Kass Security Committee, native administration leaders, and the Forces for Freedom and Change.

In a meeting with the community leaders, he said that an investigation committee will start its tasks immediately and will submit a report within a week.

He pledged to hold all those involved accountable under the Emergency Law imposed in the state six years ago.

Mahdi further called on those who sought refuge in the nearby mountains from the militia attacks to descend, as security will be provided in the locality by regular forces which will be deployed in all villages in the area.

The community leaders criticized the state government for prioritising the restoration of government buildings that were recently torched in Kass and neglecting the protection of the displaced.

They pointed to the heavy proliferation of weapons in Kass locality and accused “certain infiltrators” of setting fire to the police station and a number of government facilities.

They referred to the bad human conditions in the villages in Kass locality, the deteriorating security conditions, and the assaults on agricultural lands.

Darfur Women Forum

The Darfur Women Forum welcomed the arrival of the joint forces to a number of conflict areas in the region.

Sara Mustafa, coordinator of the South Darfur Women Forum, said that the arrival of these forces will preserve security, especially in agricultural areas, especially where women represent more than 70 per cent.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, as part of the Kandaka programme broadcast on Thursday, she referred to an earlier meeting of representatives from the Darfur Women’s Forum with Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, in which he agreed to their urgent request for the necessity of securing the agricultural season and providing security to protect women and directing him to send protection forces to our people.