Sudan’s air force, militia attack villages in Kutum, North Darfur

Eight villagers were reportedly killed, two others injured, and one was abducted in militia attacks in Kutum locality on Wednesday.

According to a statement by the Wadi Hour Students’ Association, paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the villages of Anka, Amarei, Goz Kajo, Umbaro, and El Malha at about 5am. They used heavy weapons, and were backed by the Sudanese Air Force.   

A separate group of militiamen collected the livestock and belongings of the villagers, who fled the area, the statement reads.

The villagers fatally hit by bullets are Jamal Abakar Hasaballah, Waleed Eisa Ahmed, Mohamed Adam Hasabo, Salah Ahmed Karkour, Ali Kenedy, Suleiman Adoma Teiman, Hamed Sandal, and Mubarak Ahmed Azrag.

Ali Mukhtar Fadul and Ali Shomo were injured. The attackers took Mohamed Suleiman Adam with them.

The Students’ Association called on “each one with a conscience, in Sudan and the world, to firmly stand up against these attacks, and bring the perpetrators to justice”.

In January, villages in Kutum and the neighbouring Karnoi and Um Baru localities were attacked by large groups of RSF troops. Mohamed Ahmed Minawi Digeish, independent MP for Karnoi and Um Baru localities, told Radio Dabanga Dabanga on 8 February that 63 villages had been attacked.

The Sudanese government formed the RSF mid 2013, under the command of the security aparatus, to “eliminate the insurgency for once and for all”, the Defence Minister at the time said.

End December, Khartoum began its second “dry season campaign against the rebels” in Darfur. Apart from dozens of villages in North Darfur, many villages in the Jebel Marra region were also attacked and plundered.