Govt. forces launch major attack on Darfur’s Jebel Marra

At least six were killed and injured today in a joint army-militia attack on villages in Jebel Marra.

At 7 am, a large force of army soldiers and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), backed by intensive air bombardments, attacked a number of villages in Jebel Marra.

Fleeing villagers told Radio Dabanga that the government forces came from two directions. One force, coming from Central Darfur, attacked the area from the west. It consisted of about 120 vehicles, eight tanks, and eight large wagons. The second force that came from the north-east, consisted of 85 vehicles, five tanks, and seven large wagons.

The attackers used heavy artillery and missiles and were accompanied by intensive air raids, the villagers reported.

El Nur Omar Hamed (17) from Debanyra village was shot dead. Fatima Eisa Yahya (37) from the village of Sayounga, Abakar Yousef Saleh (35) from Beronga, and Haj Mousa (48), the imam of the Terenga village mosque were killed too.

Maryam Adam Yahya from Debanyra, and a girl called Nafeesa Haroun from Terenga were seriously injured. Sara Younes Hamid (5), Ahmed Abdelsalam (6), Zakiya Tibin (8), and Mustafa Haroun (10) went missing.

The villagers all said that a large number of villagers must have been killed and wounded, but as “so many people” fled in various directions, they could not give much information yet.

The majority of the population fled in the direction of Deribat, Talba, and Kuro, the sources reported. They expressed their concern that “many people may die thirst, hunger, and the biting cold”, and appealed to the international community to intervene “as soon as possible”.

The shelling and bombardments that lasted until 3 pm also killed dozens of livestock and burned tracts of pastures.

One government convoy regrouped near Guldo, the other in the area of Fanga.

The Sudanese government announced in October that its forces would eliminate all rebel fighters during the “next dry season”. Jebel Marra is a stronghold of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid El Nur.