Another farmer killed, protest march in El Fasher

A demonstration against the killings and attacks against farmers was staged in El Fasher today, for the third time this week. A farmer was shot dead by militiamen near the city on Thursday evening.

Ibrahim Yahya, commonly known as Bahbari, was killed in Majdoub, west of El Fasher. His death triggered the third protest march in the capital of North Darfur State this week. Militant Abbala herdsmen have killed five farmers and wounded 15 others in separate incidents near El Fasher during this period.

A witness told Radio Dabanga on Friday that according to his estimations, about one hundred angry demonstrators carried the body of Bahbari from the hospital in El Fasher, purposely passing the house of North Darfur Governor Abdelwahid Yousef. They chanted slogans for justice.

Two people were shot dead and five others sustained bullet wounds in clashes between herders and farmers in Um Jadwal village, south-east of El Fasher, on Monday. The residents left the village en masse on Tuesday, carrying the two corpses in a protest march.

Hundreds of family members of the victims of a shooting at Fara Um Sharekh, west of El Fasher, staged a demonstration on 17 December, in protest against the killing of two farmers and injury of ten others by herders.

Farmers in both North and South Darfur have been complaining about attacks by Abbala tribesmen and the destruction of their farms by the herders’ livestock. The Abbala (camel herders) of the large Rizeigat tribe, live in northern Darfur and Chad. The late and below average rainfall, is causing poorer quality pasture, which is one of the causes for herders to drive their cattle onto cultivated lands.

The number of assaults on farmers in which armed camel or cattle herders were involved – that were reported to Radio Dabanga – has been increasing since September.