Three children die of malnutrition in Darfur’s Jebel Marra

Three young children died of the effects of malnutrition in the Iobe area of east Jebel Marra on Monday night.

A resident told Radio Dabanga that Abdelhay Yagoub Adam (5), Hawa Eisa Yahya (3) and Zaki Musa Saleh (4), all suffered malnutrition-related diarrhoea and constant coughing before they died.

Food security is proving even more critical in Jebel Marra than it is in the rest of Darfur. Repeated aerial bombardments of villages and farmlands have forced the bulk of the population to flee to camps for the displaced, or to take refuge in the mountains.

Working farmland to grow food is hazardous, as in addition, militiamen frequently drive their livestock to graze on those crops the drought has not killed.

Yesterday a paramilitary group attacked farmer Halima Yagoub Adam on her farm east of Khazan Tunjur area, and beat her with an axe on her head. They left her seriously injured, and made off with her donkey.

A paramilitary group has been preventing farmers from tilling their farmlands at Wadi Grenewa by force of arms.

One of the farmers told Radio Dabanga that they returned to Tabit and notified the authorities which have not moved against the group.