Rebels ‘repel militia attack’ in Darfur’s Jebel Marra

The Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdelwahid leadership (SLM-AW) claims to have repelled an attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) government militia on its forces stationed at Barbara area in Darfur’s Jebel Marra this week.

According to a statement issued by Waleed Abakar, the military spokesman of the movement, the RSF troops that carried out the attack moved from Sorong military garrison.

The movement claims in the statement that its forces managed to defeat the attack and inflicted “grievous loss of life” among the attackers, and seized military equipment, prompting the militiamen to flee the battlefield.

The statement said that the movement’s forces managed to capture six machine guns, four Kalashnikov rifles, with four boxes of mixed ammunition.

On Monday, the movement accused the RSF of continuing to commit crimes against civilians in Tawila locality of North Darfur.

It condemned what it called “Unamid’s complicity and the local and regional silence on the repeated attacks on unarmed civilians, the extrajudicial killings, and the attacks on farms and returned displaced people (Hawkeer) in Darfur”.

The movement said in its statement that the military junta and its militias are “trying to drag the province [of Darfur] and Sudan to violence to abort the popular revolution and divert it from the peaceful course to aggression against civilians and provocation”.

Jebel Marra

In September 2018, the SLM-AW announced a ceasefire to facilitate access and relief aid to a landslide-affected area in East Jebel Marra. Abdelgader Gadoura, commander-in-chief of the movement, said in November that although the SLM-AW has declared a ceasefire, the regime has continued to breach the agreement.

As the  periodic report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the UN Security Council of January 14 pointed out: “Notwithstanding sustained and positive engagement between state authorities and Unamid, corroborating reports on human rights incidents in Central Darfur continued to be a challenge.”

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