Darfur rebels: ‘Militia attack repulsed in Jebel Marra’

The mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement headed by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) claims to have repulsed an attack by members of the main government militia on areas controlled by the movement south of Jebel Marra on Monday.

Waleed Abakar, the movement’s military spokesman, told Radio Dabanga that the movement’s forces repelled an attack on the area near Saboun El Fagur in southern Jebel Marra.

The attack was carried out by the by the main government militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), stationed in Gobo area south of Kass. The SLM-AW statement claims the rebels fighters forced the militiamen to retreat.

He said that the government forces then fired heavy artillery shell indiscriminately towards the villages in the neighbourhood, which led to the fleeing of civilians to caves and mountains.

Jebel Marra

In September 2018, the SLM-AW announced a ceasefire to facilitate access and relief aid to a landslide-affected area in East Jebel Marra. Abdelgader Gadoura, commander-in-chief of the movement, said in November that although the SLM-AW has declared a ceasefire, the regime has continued to breach the agreement.

As the latest periodic report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to the UN Security Council of January 14 pointed out: “Notwithstanding sustained and positive engagement between state authorities and Unamid, corroborating reports on human rights incidents in Central Darfur continued to be a challenge.”

‘Development funds stolen’

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the former commissioner of Central Jebel Marra locality in Central Darfur, Mohamed Adam, has accused ‘four senior officials’ of ‘appropriating SDG 560 million ($11.8 million*) allocated for the support of local development in Central Jebel Marra locality’.

* As effective foreign exchange rates can vary widely in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)