Rebels claim killing of paramilitaries in Darfur’s Jebel Marra

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) under the command of Abdelwahid El Nur claimed a deadly attack on militiamen in the northwestern part of Jebel Marra on Monday.

The rebels killed 11 members of the militiamen which they claim to be the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and wounded a number of others in the area of Wadai in Toro. They also claimed to have seized arms and ammunition from the RSF.

Waleed Mohamed Abakar, the military spokesman for the SLM-AW, told Radio Dabanga that members of the RSF arrived on camels and horses in Toro. The rebel forces responded and the ensuing fight lasted until 10a.m.

“Two of our troops were killed and five of us were wounded.” The fighting has led to hundreds of civilians fleeing the areas and taking refuge in the slopes of the surrounding mountains and caves, according to Abakar.

Torched

Abakar reported that the RSF torched the villages Kiti and Dargu, and set fire to the Kuri Koran School. The movement claimed that RSF members also set fire to houses in thirteen villages they plundered in northern Jebel Marra on Thursday and Friday.

On Sunday, the rebel movement reported fierce fighting between its combatants and government forces in the area of Jaldo in northern Jebel Marra.

The SLM-AW denied claims by Sudan’s Arab Baath Party, which said that the militiamen burned the villages in retaliation, after some members of the SLM-AW killed camel herders and stole a number of camels from Tawa village on Wednesday.