500 Salamat families ‘deported’ from South Darfur town

A total of 500 families of Salamat tribe’s leaders are being deported from Rahad El Berdi city in South Darfur to Nyala in a move jointly coordinated by state and local authorities. Rahad El Berdi, where many battles have been occurring, is the stronghold of the Al Taaysha tribe which has reportedly been carrying out strikes against Salamat tribesmen in an overspill conflict that began over two weeks ago in Central Darfur. Ali Kushayb, an alleged war criminal indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) comes from the Al Taaysha tribe himself. He is reported to be the commander of the Central Reserve Forces (known as Abu Tira) in Rahad El Berdi and to be leading many attacks against the Salamat. Deportations Member of the legislative council of South Darfur and Salamat leader Mohamed Al Bashir Musa said 250 families were sent to Nyala on Tuesday afternoon in a first batch of deportations. Speaking to Radio Dabanga from Nyala, Musa who was appointed by South Darfur’s governor to receive the deportees, said families were placed in a girls’ school building in the state capital.   They traveled in three trucks guarded by police forces and were received by deputy governor Abdel Karim Musa. Al Bashir Musa, who is the brother of a Salamat Nazir (top administrator), asserted the families were “forced to leave” and that the operation was organized by South Darfur’s governor and the commissioner of Rahad El Berdi. The commissioner, the Salamat leader said, alleged the families should leave because he is not able to provide them security. Khalid Hussein Ismail, a Salamat leader in Rahad El Berdi city who has just arrived in Nyala, reinforced Musa’s allegations over the local commissioner.   He added that members of his tribe were expelled because “Al Taaysha’s militias” threatened to kill them on Monday. Ismail, one of the tribes’ leaders who signed a peace treaty in South Darfur on Monday, said the deportees’ situation at the Nyala school building is “very bad”. 70 houses burned He disclosed to Radio Dabanga that Salamat tribe’s members were being attacked by by the Al Taaysha since last Friday in Rahad El Berdi.  “45 shops were looted and burned along with 70 houses, all belonging to the Salamat”, Ismail said, adding the assaults were led by Ali Kushayb and his troops. Ismail refuses to return to Rahad El Berdi because of the Al Taaysha’s destruction and because of their threats to kill the Samalat if they went back.He disclosed that the second group of 250 Salamat families is expected to arrive in Nyala “at any time”. Self-defense Meanwhile, the tribe leader of Al Taaysha in Rahad El Berdi, Abdul Rahman Bishara, vehemently denied in a statement to Radio Dabanga that the Salamat families went to Nyala because of lack of protection or harassment. He said those people left because they “demanded” that authorities sent them to Nyala in fear the Misseirya could attack or even kill them “any time”. Bishara said he gave instructions to all of his people not to assault the Salamat unless it is in “self-defense”. Before spreading to South Darfur, tribal tensions began to rise on 3 April in Umm Dukhun, Central Darfur, when a Misseriya tribesman allegedly tried looting and opening fire on a Salamat man, who was not hurt. Hostilities erupted the next day when 4,000 men of both sides began battling each other. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says Tissi town in neighboring Chad has received 50,000 refugees fleeing the tribal clashes in one week calling it the “largest influx of refugees from Sudan into Chad since 2005”. UNAMID, Darfur security On Tuesday the Tripartite Coordination Mechanism on UNAMID met at the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.The mechanism -composed of representatives of the government of Sudan, of the United Nations and of the African Union- is an instrument aimed at resolving issues and challenges related to the mission’s deployment and operations. Their primary focus of dicussion in the meeting were “concerns over an increase in the number of security incidents in Darfur and access by peacekeepers of … UNAMID … to those areas most affected by conflict”. During the talks, the AU and UN expressed concern over the increased reports of armed clashes and inter-communal violence in Darfur, UNAMID reports.“While acknowledging the Government of Sudan’s primary responsibility of protecting civilians, the Mission noted with concern that delays in granting peacekeepers access to these areas negatively impacts the quality and efficiency of the Mission in carrying out its mandate”, it added. The Government noted that many of the restrictions were due to security concerns and requested that there be increased coordination at the technical level, a statement read.File photoRelated: ICC’s Kushayb backed by military intelligence in South Darfur –source (15 April 2013)