Two villagers killed, many displaced in renewed fighting in Darfur’s Jebel Marra

Two people were killed and four others were wounded in clashes between Sudanese government forces and rebel combatants in southern Jebel Marra on Friday.

Fleeing people from Gobo village in northern Kass locality, South Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that Adam Yagoub (48) and Nureldin Saleh (35) were killed in a new battle between army troops backed by militiamen and rebel fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur. Four other villagers were wounded.

“At about 8 am on Friday, fierce fighting broke out in the area. We fled in all directions,” one of the villagers said. “Therefore, we don’t have any information about the others.”

People from neighbouring Sina village said that they heard shooting and explosions until Friday afternoon. Smoke was seen billowing above the areas of Tara, Tarantawra (Tarantara) and Kalokitting.

Offensives

In the past years, government forces have made various attempts to eliminate SLM-AW bases in the Jebel Marra region during the dry seasons (roughly between January-and May).

In March this year, rebel sites in East Jebel Marra were attacked. In April, members of the Rapid Support Forces, Sudan’s main militia, attacked areas in northwest Jebel Marra. At least 13 villages burned to the ground.

The fighting caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. More than 100 newly displaced families reached Otash camp near the South Darfur capital of Nyala in end April. In end April, clashes were again reported in the northwestern part of Jebel Marra.

Last year, the attacks focused on northwest Jebel Marra as well. According to an RSF spokesman in February 2017, Darfur became “free of armed movements, suspects, and outlaws, except for a small [SLM-AW] group stationed at the top of Jebel Marra”.

In 2016, more than 80,000 people were displaced by a major military offensive against the holdout rebels in the area.