West Darfur governor to work from Kereinik camp

During his visit to the Abuja camp for the displaced in Kereinik on Monday, the Wali (Governor) of West Darfur, said he would temporarily transfer his office to the camp site today, to be able to directly supervise the return operations of people who fled attacks on the camp on December 5.

Governor Khamees Abakar as well visited stores with food and shelter materials in the state capital El Geneina, in preparation for distributing them to the people living in the various camps for the displaced in Kereinik. He called on native administration leaders to list the displaced in need of humanitarian assistance.

In the past weeks, large groups of militant Arab tribesmen have been attacking villages, towns, and camps in Jebel Moon, Kereinik, and Sirba in West Darfur. Hundreds of people were killed, dozens of villages burned to ashes, and thousands fled to other parts of the state or to neighbouring Chad.

Leaders of Arab tribes and the Misseriya in Jebel Moon signed a non-aggression pact in El Geneina on December 9, but the other attacks are reportedly not related to tribal conflicts.

According to Ahmed Ishag, member of the Committee for Stopping the Massacres in West Darfur, the recent violence “has absolutely nothing to do with tribal conflicts, and any attempt to describe it in this way is a complicity in the crime”.

In a press conference in El Geneina on Sunday, he said that the attacks came at harvest time “in a clear targeting to destroy livelihoods in a premeditated crime that can only be described as genocide and ethnic cleansing”.

‘Security chaos’

El Hadi Idris, former rebel leader and member of the Sovereignty Council, called on Monday for a meeting of Sudan’s Security and Defence Council  and the Joint High Council in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher to discuss the overall security situation in Darfur.

El Hadi told reporters in El Fasher yesterday that the situation in Darfur is unstable and witnesses a security chaos. He warned that the instability in the western region will negatively affect the national security.

Therefore, the two Councils should convene in Darfur, “to confirm the seriousness of the government and the rebel movements in extending security and stability in the region”.

On December 9, Idris announced that a joint force with special tasks will be formed “within two weeks”, consisting of the Sudan Armed Forces, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), former rebel combatants, and police forces, to contain the situation in Darfur.

Last month, Sudan researcher and analyst Eric Reeves, stated in a tweet that the (Arab) attackers see the October 25 military coup in Khartoum as a license to resume attacks on non-Arab farmers.