Herders raid Kendebe in West Darfur

Herders raided Kendebe in West Darfur’s Sirba yesterday, after the police shot one of them in a firefight the day before. In the neighbourhood of El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, a farmer was killed. In North Darfur's Tawila, three farmers sustained bullet wounds.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a farmer reported from Kendebe that he and his fellow farmers sought help from the police after herdsmen drove their camels and cattle into their farms on Wednesday.

The police intervened and exchanged fire with the intruders. One of the herders was fatally hit.

In response, the herdsmen raided Kendebe at dawn on Thursday morning. Four residents were injured. The attackers torched a number of houses. They then left the area, stealing 50 cows and 300 sheep and goats.

The four wounded were taken to a hospital in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur.

In the area between Martal and Mashrou Abuzeid in Tawila in North Darfur’s Tawila (popularly known as eastern Jebel Marra), Adam Yagoub and two women were shot by herdsmen on their farms on Thursday.

They were seriously inujured and have been taken to the El Fasher Teaching Hospital, a relative of Yagoub reported.

No burial

Farmer Ahmed Matar was killed by militant herders in the area of Gokar near El Geneina, West Darfur, when he protested grazing of their livestock on his farm, an eyewitness reported to Radio Dabanga.

His body was taken to the morgue of El Geneina Hospital. The family of the victim said they will only bury him when the perpetrators have been arrested.

Darfur, and North Darfur in particular, is witnessing frequent attacks on farms by militant herdsmen as well as by militiamen of the Rapid Support Forces, who are recruited from Arab herders’ tribes that are known to look down on the non-Arab farmers in the area.

Last week, the Darfur Network for Monitoring and Documentation urged the Sudanese government to intervene and stop the violence against farmers and villagers in Darfur.

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