‘Nine dead in RSF militia attacks on 12 Darfur villages’

At least nine people were reportedly killed, 22 others were injured, and four were raped in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on western Jebel Marra on Sunday. A Central Darfur official has denied the incidents.

“At about 7 am on Sunday, elements of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) driving 41 Land Cruisers loaded with weapons, and others on camels and horses began to attack 12 villages north of Nierteti,” El Shafee Abdallah, the coordinator of the camps for the displaced in Central Darfur, told Radio Dabanga.

“Nine villagers were shot dead, four young women were gang-raped, and at least 22 people were injured,” he reported. “Before torching the houses, they stole all the property. They cut and burned even the lemon trees.”

The camp coordinator said that the entire population of the villages fled into the mountains, “as the roads leading to Nierteti are blocked by the militiamen”.

‘Secure and stable’

A Central Darfur government official denied the attacks took place.

“Reports about RSF attacks on Jebel Marra villages are sheer lies,” he told this station. “The Jebel Marra region is currently experiencing security and stability it has not witnessed for more than 13 years.”

He pointed to the recovery of the activities at the markets in and around Golo, high on the Jebel Marra mountain. “More than 10 convoys of lorries carrying commodities arrive there each week without being subjected to any assaults or thefts.”