More attacks against farmers in Kordofan, no police response

Several farmers have been attacked in Kordofan. One farmer and his son were killed in West Kordofan two days ago, whilst farmers in South Kordofan were attacked by armed robbers earlier this month. Another farmer and a young man were attacked in South Kordofan in July. All those cases were reported to the police, but they refused to respond.

A farmer and his son were killed in an attack in West Kordofan on Wednesday.

Mustafa Abdelrahim told Radio Dabanga that a group of gunmen opened fire on Ahmed Ismail, his wife, and his son while they were working on their farm in the village of El Fara, east of Lagawa.

Ismail and his son (14) died instantly. His wife was shot in the hand and was taken to Lagawa Hospital for treatment.

The perpetrators fled, Abdelrahim said. He warned that the attack could lead to tribal unrest in the area.

Earlier this month, on August 4, a group of gunmen attacked and robbed farmers in the village of Redeina, about 15 km southwest of Abu Kershola town in South Kordofan.

The Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) reported on Tuesday that Asaad El Kheir (68) was tilling his farm together with his workers when they were attacked by eight masked armed robbers on four motorcycles and two tuk-tuks.

They robbed them of their telephones, money, fuel, and other belongings. Before they left, they beat El Kheir with sticks and broke his both legs.

A complaint was filed at the Abu Kershola police, but the police did not respond.

When masked armed people shot farmer Omer Hamza El Obeid last month, and fractured his leg, the case was reported to Kadugli police but there was no response either.

On July 14, Mubarak Hamid (23) was injured in his leg when a man entered his house in Kujuriya village, west of Delling, and shot him while he was sleeping, HUDO reported. The case was reported to the police in Delling but, again, there was no response.

Police response

In most cases of murder and violence in Kordofan that Radio Dabanga has reported on, the police do not respond or refuse to visit crime scenes.

Not seldomly, government forces are involved or complicit in the attacks. Last month, angry residents in South Kordofan torched a police station after policemen were discovered to be involved in the murder of two young people.

The angry protests erupted when the relatives of the dead men objected to what they described as “the police department’s delay in [following] the procedures, and an attempt to obliterate evidence”.

At the end of July, Radio Dabanga also reported on the Rapid Support Forces assaulting civilians in North Kordofan. The RSF are widely believed to be responsible for atrocities in the Kordofan and Darfur regions in the past years.

Safety concerns

Like in Darfur, attacks on farmers are nothing new in South Kordofan.

Earlier this week, farmers staged a protest in Delling, angered by the general lack of funding and the delay of payments of financial support. They are in serious need of funding, especially because the agricultural season last year failed as well.

They attributed the failure not only to the lack of rain but also to the insecurity in the region, as many farmers were attacked on their farms last year.

Such attacks make farming a dangerous activity. Of all murders and attacks in South Kordofan that Radio Dabanga has reported on in the past year, especially in the Nuba Mountains, the vast majority of victims were farmers.

People in South Kordofan fear that the Nuba Mountains will become a second Darfur, referring to the violence and genocide against non-Arab sedentary farming tribes.