Darfur rebels claim govt. troops killed in Jebel Marra

The Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) says its combatants killed a number of government troops in South Darfur’s East Jebel Marra on Friday.

In a statement on Friday, SLM-AW spokesman Waleed Abakar reported that rebel forces repulsed an attack by army soldiers and militiamen on their site in the area of Barfara.

He said that 11 government troops were killed.

The fighting was still ongoing on late Friday afternoon.

‘Last strongholds’

Since early March this year, the Sudanese army and allied militias launched renewed attacks on various areas in the Jebel Marra massive in Central Darfur, in an attempt to eliminate the last strongholds of the SLM-AW, the remaining rebel group in the region.

The government forces as well wreak havoc in the area. They storm villages in the neighbourhood, rob the inhabitants of their property, and rape the girls and women.

At least 50,000 people were forced to flee the fighting and militia attacks on their villages. The USA, UK, and Norway have strongly condemned the violence in the region.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan reported in its latest biweekly bulletin that about 900 Jebel Marra residents became newly displaced in early July. They are currently hosted in the basic school of Golo, “which is overcrowded and without access to sanitation facilities”.