RSF attacks in Ba’ashim, North Darfur

A number of citizens were killed and others wounded in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Amarai, and villages in the area of Donki Ba’ashim, at the border between Mellit and Kutum localities, in North Darfur, on Saturday. “The RSF Janjaweed came in dozens of vehicles,” several villagers who fled the attacks reported to Radio Dabanga. “They attacked the villages of Amarai, Khashum Wadi, Wadi Buwa, Silu, Shurgilei, Dabba Nayra, Tima, and Garbu Salat.”   “They looted all our property and livestock. The numbers of people killed and wounded are unknown, because of the chaos created by the attacks. We fled in all directions, and the rapid support militias are still plundering.” One of the villagers said that three relatives were killed: Idris Bashir, Suleiman Khamis Ahmed, and Abbas Suleiman Abdallah.   El Haj Bakhit from Donki Ba’ashim urged the UN and Unamid to intervene to protect “the unarmed civilians from the RSF massacres.” “There are definitely no rebel forces in this area,” he stressed. Security apparatus Radio Dabanga reported in December last year that Border Guards Commander, Mohamed Hamdan, better known as Hemeti, had recruited large numbers of young Darfuris. They were trained as paramilitary troops in camps near Khartoum, in order to fight along with the Sudanese army in South Kordofan. After returning from the battlefields in January, the militiamen were stationed in the area near El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan. After fierce protests of the population against their widespread assaults, they were expelled from North Kordofan mid February. The Governor of North Kordofan State, Ahmed Haroun, explained in a statement that those militias are called Rapid Support Forces, being regular troops belonging to the operations body of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). The RSF are commanded by Maj. Gen. Abbas Abdel Aziz, who recently stated that his troops’ movements and deployment in military operations are arranged in coordination with the General Command of the Sudanese army. “They are in Darfur to fight the armed opposition movements.” File photo Related: ‘No humanity in North Darfur at all’: civil societies (28 March 2014) Darfur conflicts displace 100,000 in one week (12 March 2014) ‘Rapid Support Forces in Darfur to fight rebels’: General (26 February 2014) $3 million for withdrawal of North Kordofan’s Janjaweed (14 February 2014) Janjaweed ‘causing chaos’ in North Kordofan capital (7 February 2014)