Militia, air attacks continue on East Jebel Marra, Darfur

An Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force targeted areas in the northern part of East Jebel Marra on Saturday and today. No casualties were reported. In the same area, a group of Rapid Support Forces plundered a village near Katur, on Saturday.

Speaking to Dabanga, several villagers from the area near Fanga, said that the explosions killed a number of livestock, and set fire to some farmlands and orchards, south and west of Fanga. “We also heard explosions far away, from the west of Jebel Marra,” one of them added.

Elements of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in ten Land Cruisers forced the residents of Kobos village, 10 km west of Katur, to flee into the nearby valleys and mountains on Saturday afternoon. 

“After we fled, they pillaged the entire village. They even took the beds. They also removed the engines from the flour mills, put everything in their vehicles, and drove away,” a villager who fled to family in Katur reported to Dabanga.

The Darfur Displaced and Refugees Commission for Religious Affairs strongly condemned the attacks by “the various militia forces”.

Sheikh Abdallah Mohamed Abdelrahman, Chairman of the Commission appealed through Dabanga to “the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and human rights organisations to urgently intervene, strengthen the mandate of Unamid, and increase the number of peacekeepers to protect the civilians in Darfur”.