Attacks on North Darfur villages continue, leave three people dead

The number of people killed in attacks on villages in the southern part of North Darfur, rose to three on Tuesday. During the fourth day of the violence, a woman and her two children were injured, two herders were abducted, and again a large number of livestock was stolen.

Groups of gunmen attacked villages in the area of Kushna near Tabit yesterday. Farmer Mahjoub Ali Idris (35) was killed, a source told Radio Dabanga from Tawila.

The militants also attacked Tangerara village and burned it completely. Halima Yagoub (30) and her two sons, Hasan and Hussein Saleh were wounded. The attackers then left, taking two displaced shepherds and a large number of livestock with them.

Farmland

On Friday, groups of armed men stormed the villages of Kolgi, Gallab, Kadarek, Um Siyala, Adara, Um Arda and East Um Ghubeysha. The area is inhabited by displaced people from the Zamzam camp near the state capital El Fasher, who temporarily returned to tend their farms during the current agricultural season. At least one person was wounded, five children went missing, and hundreds of people fled their improvised homes.

The North Darfur state Security Committee described what happened in Tawila and Dar El Salam localities as “frictions over agricultural lands between a group of Arab tribes and Zaghawa tribesmen”.

Two days later, a displaced farmer was killed and four others were injured, when the militants refused to leave the agricultural fields, they are occupying, Adam Ahmed, an activist living in the Zamzam camp, told Radio Dabanga.

Ahmed reported yesterday afternoon that Siddigeldin Ali Yousef, one of the farmers injured in Gallab, died in the El Fasher Teaching Hospital that morning.

Seeking refuge

Other sources reported the displacement of a large number of villagers in the area.

A large number of women and children were seen wandering in the valleys after the attack on their villages in Tawila, one of them told Radio Dabanga.

Another source reported from Shangil Tobaya that hundreds of people left Sharafa and Arashu villages for fear of attack by the militants. They arrived at Shangil Tobaya on Monday evening.

Adam Ahmed complained that no government forces are seen again in the conflict areas. “The people do not dare to take the injured to hospitals in the nearby towns for fear of being attacked again,” he said.

A joint force earlier sent by the North Darfur government have been unable to evacuate the militants from the villages.

Ahmed further stated that the Zamzam residents who blocked the road linking El Fasher with Nyala on Sunday, in protest against the violence, have opened the road again for traffic.