Four Darfur farmers attacked by militant herders

Four farmers, three of them women, were assaulted by herders in separate incidents in North and Central Darfur on Monday. In all cases, they were attacked when they protested the grazing of livestock on their farms.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a farmer reported that his colleague Yagoub Yahya, sustained a bullet wound in his leg when he was trying to drive cattle from his farm in the area of Dubo El Omda in North Darfur’s Tawila locality.

In the same area and for the same reason, farmer Maryam Suliman was hit on her head with an axe.

The source also reported that Aisha Khalifa was severely injured in her head on her farm near the village of Tinkara, south of Tabit in Tawila locality. She had to be transferred to El Fasher Teaching Hospital.

In Central Darfur, Siddiga Abdelrahman, who is pregnant, was seriously injured in the area west of Jebel Marra, when herdsmen drove their livestock into her farm, and beat her with sticks and whips when she protested.

She is currently being treated in Zalingei Hospital, her husband reported to this station.

Clashes

Tensions over farmland have often caused clashes between farmers in Darfur (mostly ‘black Africans’) and militant herders (calling themselves Arabs) who want to use the farms as pasture. This happens in particular in the dry season, between November and May.

In August, villagers in the area of Dubo El Omda complained about herdsmen who released livestock into their farms.

Farmers in Tawila and Kutum sent a delegation to El Fasher in July to demand the state government to protect them and expel herders with their livestock from their farms.

In mid-June, people living in camps for the displaced in Tawila took to the streets in protest against herders' attacks. They handed officers of the Unamid base in the town a memorandum in which they condemned the killing of displaced farmers and firewood collectors by herdsmen in the area, and demanded punishment of those involved, and protection of the displaced.

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