Darfur’s violence displaces 70,000 people in six months
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June 7, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Around 70,000 civilians have been forced to
flee their villages in Darfur since December 2010 as result of the
upsurge of violence in the troubled region of western Sudan, said
Human Rights Watch.
The increase of violence during the last six months in Darfur comes at
a time where the international community is focused on the
independence of South Sudan within a month and the Arab unrest.
HRW underscored further that despite the growing violence Sudanese
government with the support of the African Union and the United
Nations is moving towards the domestication of the conflict through
the "controversial" Darfur-based Political Process.
"Recent fighting has killed scores of civilians, destroyed property
and displaced an estimated 70,000 people from dozens of towns and
villages between El Fasher and Nyala, and some ethnic Fur areas of
eastern Jebel Mara," reads the report.
Conducted during the period between January and May 2011, the report
says that the patterns of attack show that the assaults and arbitrary
arrests were based on ethnic divisions.
The witnesses interrogated by the HRW investigators said the
government militias composed mainly of Berti, Birgid, and Mima ethic
groups targeted the areas of Khor Abeche and surrounding villages in
the Shearia in South Darfur where people from the Zaghawa ethnic group
are based.
The militias aligned to the government also attacked North Darfur
Zaghawa particularly in Shangil Tobayi, Dar el Salam, and areas
around.
In a case documented by HRW, Sudanese soldiers after surrounding the
house of a local leader asked him of his tribe and threatened to "kill
all of them [Zaghawas] and rape all their women."
The 28 page report further says that the air attacks by the Sudanese
army in Darfur including Jebel Marr killed 20 civilians at least in
mid-May alone.
HRW monitors observed the deteriorating human rights situation in
Darfur and wondered how the AU UN supported political process that the
government plans to launch there can be held under such conditions and
the enforcement of emergency law.
"The African Union and United Nations, which play a critical role in
Darfur, need to ensure their joint peacekeeping mission can properly
monitor the human rights situation," Bekele said. "Any support they
provide to Sudan needs to promote and protect rights, not undermine
them."
(ST)
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