Musa Hilal’s militias plunder, burn, take control of North Darfur’s Saraf Omra

Militiamen led by Musa Hilal have taken control of Saraf Omra town in North Darfur on Saturday. They have ravaged the town, as well as a number of villages west of Saraf Omra. Sources from Saraf Omra told Radio Dabanga on Sunday afternoon that they could not determine the number of dead and wounded because the situation did not allow them to leave their houses. Yet, they indicated that at least 50 people, most of them Gimir tribesmen, were killed and injured. 12 bodies, two of them of women, and 15 wounded were transferred to the Unamid site nearby on Sunday morning. There are still many bodies lying scattered in the streets. “The militiamen plundered the market, many shops and houses in Saraf Omra, as well as dozens of villages west of the town,” the sources reported. An entire neighbourhood in the western part of Saraf Omra and seven villages west of the town were pillaged and burned. Most of the residents of Saraf Omra and the seven burnt villages fled to the Unamid base nearby, while others fled towards Kabkabiya and El Sareif Beni Hussein localities in North Darfur, and southwards, to Zalingei locality in Central Darfur. The sources reported that Hilal’s militia forces seized control of Saraf Omra on Saturday. “They set up checkpoints, and took over town entrances and government facilities.” The majority of the militia troops pulled out of Saraf Omra on Sunday. “They had been stationed a few kilometres west and south of Saraf Omra, and attacked the town with hundreds of Land Cruisers mounted with Dushka machineguns and loaded with heavy weapons, RPGs, and shotguns.” A resident of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that a number of wounded troops and civilians from Saraf Omra arrived at El Fasher airport on Sunday. They were transferred to the military hospital and the El Fasher Teaching Hospital for treatment. ‘Culprits’ The Governor of North Darfur, Osman Kibir, confirmed that dozens of people were killed and injured in attacks on Saraf Omra by what he called “groups of culprits”. Those are the same militia groups, he said, that had targeted the Central Reserve Forces (Abu Tira) at the end of February. During a meeting of representatives of Unamid, international organisations, and various North Darfur tribes on Sunday, the Governor stated that preliminary statistics revealed that more than 350,000 people in the west and east of North Darfur have been affected by the fighting. “They are in need of immediate relief,” Kibir stated in press conference after the meeting, directly broadcasted by the pro-government TV-channel Ashorooq. Representatives of Unamid warned that it is “difficult to deliver aid to the affected”, describing the situation in North Darfur as “very serious”. The Tama and Gimir tribes, on their part, denounced the killings and lootings that took place in Saraf Omra locality by the militias led by Musa Hilal. They hold the Sudanese government responsible for “these crimes”, which they described as “genocide and ethnic cleansing”.The Arab tribes of Kabkabyia locality also condemned the attacks on Saraf Omra, and announced that they will form a committee of members of all the tribes in the locality to protect Kabkabiya town and the rural areas of their locality. El Geneina In El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, sources told Radio Dabanga that a large number of Land Cruisers arrived on Saturday coming from Saraf Omra. The vehicles were loaded with dead and wounded militia troops. The dead were buried, and the wounded were transferred to the military hospital in El Geneina. On Sunday morning, the seriously injured were transferred to Khartoum. The sources explained that “Musa Hilal has a large number of followers in West Darfur”. Other vehicles loaded with goods and livestock looted from the area of Saraf Omra arrived too in El Geneina on Saturday. On Sunday, a number of those goods were for sale on the markets of El Geneina, especially the Ardamata market.Lost children Four children, who fled the fighting in Saraf Omra on Friday, arrived at Birkat Seira on Saturday. One of the town sheikhs who accommodated the children, appealed via Radio Dabanga to the parents to contact him. He said that the sisters Afaf (7) and Miza (5), Muaaz Yusif Sadig (8), and Musab Mustafa (7) are in good health and “doing fine”.  File photo Related:More militia-tribe clashes in North Darfur’s Saraf Omra (7 March 2014) 11 killed as Musa Hilal troops and Tama Nazir guards clash in North Darfur (3 March 2014) Musa Hilal warns North Darfur citizens of ‘operations’ (2 March 2014)