Disease among displaced in Jebel Marra, air raids unabated

The Sudanese Air Force dropped 13 barrel bombs on abandoned areas in southwest Jebel Marra, in the sixth week of the government’s military offensive against the armed rebels that has displaced more than 80,000 civilians. A young man was killed in an air raid on Sunday.

The bombs hit Teira and Dakanja, 4 to 5 kilometres southwest of Golo on Saturday afternoon. About 55 houses were destroyed in the two villages: according to multiple witnesses, 30 were destroyed in Teira and 25 in Dakenja. They reported no casualties.

Several people went to the bombed villages on Sunday and reported to Radio Dabanga that they were emptied. “All residents have already fled high into the mountains since the Sudanese government started to attack and bomb the rebels in Jebel Marra on 15 January.” 

“We heard the sounds of air raids on Sunday in the vicinity of Guldo in west Jebel Marra,” a witness added. “The bombardments have been going on non-stop since the launch of the fighting.”

In west Jebel Marra, 22-year-old Kultum Adam Abdelkarim was killed north of Nierteti when one of Sudan’s Antonov aircraft dropped eight bombs on Kodi village. A resident told this station that the explosions, about 5 kilometres north of Nierteti, also killed a number of cattle.

No final exams

Tens of thousands of people who have fled their villages remain trapped in Jebel Marra’s mountain top and caves, and the health situation continues to deteriorate. “There is no adequate supply to treat the newly displaced. They urgently need help,” a witness from west Jebel Marra said.

He said that more and more children suffer from malnutrition and that diseases such as diarrhoea, influenza, and malaria are becoming common. On Thursday 18 February, a source in the area told Radio Dabanga that approximately 30,000 civilians have taken refuge at mountain caves southeast of Golo.

An emerging concern among the newly displaced in west Jebel Marra is the near upon examination period for students. The students are unable to sit for their final exams in the war-affected area. Moving them from Golo to Nierteti, to a new exam location, is not possible because the roads in between are still closed by government-backed militiamen.