Darfur’s Jebel Marra ‘secured by army forces’, attacks continue

The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) announced today that they regained control of Jebel Marra. They call on the people who fled the area to return to their villages and take up their life again. In an air raid on Kol Dani village in Jebel Marra on Sunday night, a woman and her son were killed. In western Jebel Marra, members of a government militia attacked fleeing villagers.

In a statement issued this (Monday) afternoon, SAF spokesman Dr Brig. Ahmed Khalifa El Shami explained that “the repeated attacks by the outlaws against army soldiers necessitated the SAF to clean the rebel pockets, and to remove the traffic restrictions imposed on the citizens” in Jebel Marra.

He said that the SAF operations resulted in purging 17 rebel sites, indicating that these locations “have been sources of threats to administrative convoys and the movement of the people”.

The spokesman further stated that “the SAF are continuing their efforts to wipe out the remaining small pockets of outlaws”.

He urged the villagers who fled the fighting to return to their places of origin and resume their “normal life”, as “the SAF also provided security and stability” in the area, and “opened the roads again for the civilians”.

Air raids

The nine barrel bombs dropped on Kol Dani village village at about 1 am this morning killed Hawa Juma Adam Siraj and her son Yasin Adam.

“15 villagers sustained injuries, and two pregnant women miscarried,” a listener who visited Kol Dani village, 15 kilometres east of Golo, this (Monday) morning, reported. “At least 20 houses were destroyed. A number of donkeys were fatally hit.”

He explained that the residents of Kol Dani fled the bombing and shelling end January. “Most of them returned on Saturday and Sunday as the attacks seemed to have stopped.”

Other sources told Radio Dabanga that an Antonov of the Sudan Air Force bombed the areas east and southeast of Golo this (Monday) morning and afternoon. They said that they saw flames and a lot of smoke in the area of Manga and surrounding villages, at a distance of 13 to 14 kilometres from Golo.

Beaten

In Tur, southeast of Nierteti in western Jebel Marra, members of a government militia beat up two fleeing villagers on Sunday.

A community leader said that five displaced villagers who arrived at Tur told him that a group of militiamen intercepted them on their way and questioned them. “The militiamen then seized two of them and severely beat them.

“They also told me that the militiamen prevented another group of eight displaced to reach Tur,” he said.