Herders ‘settling’ in displaced home-villages, W. Darfur

Displaced living in different El-Geneina camps, West Darfur’s capital, are claiming that new herders’ groups have recently began settling in their home-villages and are threatening farmers to “voluntarily hand over their lands or die”. The areas, where the civilians lived before fleeing to camps, include Mujamra, Teriya, Mara, Kajan Kising, Habila and Kanary, they told Radio Dabanga on Friday. They are all located south of El-Geneina. A camp’s leader denounced the threats by the herders, calling them “unethical and irresponsible”. He appealed to the new comers to “resort to the voice of reason and dialogue” with the lands’ owners instead of using riffles. The leader called on state authorities to address the problem “before it turns into a disaster”.A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in January indicated that conflicts between herders and farmers in West Darfur led to the displacement of 2.000 people in one month.Radio Dabanga often reports about armed hostilities between these groups across Darfur.Radio Dabanga file photoRelated: Farmers, nomads conflict ‘displaces 2.000’ in W. Darfur (25 January 2013)