Darfuris flee rebel bullets and government bombs
By Finbarr O’Reilly
EL FASHER, Sudan, Nov 23 (Reuters) – When Halima Mohammed Ahmed woke to the sound of heavy gunfire early on Monday morning, she knew the war in Sudan’s Darfur region had reached her in the town of Tawilla.
“First, we heard the rebel’s bullets, then later came the (government) plane, dropping bombs,” Halima said on Tuesday after fleeing Tawilla by truck across 60 km (37.28 miles) of desert to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebels captured the strategic town of Tawilla on Monday in the latest upsurge of fighting in western Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, where 22 months of violence has driven some 1.6 million people from their homes.
Sudan’s government retaliated on Tuesday, launching an attack on the town, including aerial bombardment, according to a U.N. official.
“You could hear the detonations here in El Fasher,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.
Army trucks loaded with munitions rumbled through El Fasher and witnesses who travelled the road from Tawilla said they saw trucks loaded with heavily armed government troops heading to the town.
“Now there is war in Tawilla,” said Ibrahim Ahmed, a local government official in El Fasher.
The government says that at least 30 policemen were killed in Monday’s rebel attack, but has denied bombing the town.
It was not clear who was in control of Tawilla by nightfall.
Skirmishes between Arab nomads and African rebels have flared in and around Tawilla for the past two weeks, but heavy fighting broke out when about 100 rebels stormed into town early on Monday, witnesses said.
“In the morning, at about seven o’clock, bullets were flying in every direction and we couldn’t move because everyone was afraid we would be killed,” said one local aid worker who asked that his organization not be identified and that only his first name, Ali, be used.
Ali said he and more than 50 other aid workers cowered on the floor of a house when the bombing raids began in the early afternoon.
Several bombs exploded only 50 metres away, filling the air with “noise and smoke,” but the room where the aid workers were huddled together was quiet, said Bashar, another aid worker who escaped with Ali.
“Some of the women were crying. I prayed and asked God to protect us, the whole team,” Bashar added.
AIR RESCUE
During a lull in the bombing, nine of the aid workers, including Halima, fled into the bush surrounding Tawilla and were gone when a call came on a satellite phone asking the aid workers to gather near a bridge to be evacuated.
Two helicopters from the African Union Cease-fire Commission swept into Tawilla to rescue the 45 aid workers trapped there.
“When we got in the helicopter, it was a big relief,” said Ali. “I knew I was safe.”
The United Nations has condemned the violence, just two weeks after both government and rebels signed peace protocols in the Nigerian capital Abuja and which has suspended aid delivery.
“The parties should understand that the recent aggression goes directly against the spirit and the letter of the Abuja protocols,” said Jan Pronk, the top U.N. official in a statement in Sudan on Tuesday.
Darfur’s war erupted in early 2003 when two groups of African rebels launched a revolt against the government.
The rebels accuse the government of neglect and of backing Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have conducted a 22-month campaign of killing, raping and looting against African villagers in what the United States has called genocide.
Khartoum denies the accusations, calling the militiamen bandits.