29 killed in Janjaweed attack on Darfur camp

Sept 29, 2005 (GENEVA) — The United Nations refugee agency said an Arab militia attack on a camp in Sudan’s Darfur region was feared to have killed at least 29 people and seriously injured 10.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement it has received reports that a group of up to 300 armed Arab men on horses and camels launched an “unprecedented” attack Wednesday afternoon on the Aro Sharow camp, in Sudan’s West Darfur province.

The attackers reportedly burned 80 shelters, or around a quarter of the temporary homes in the camp, and sent thousands of residents fleeing into the unsafe countryside surrounding Aro Sharow.

Up to 5,000 people were living in the camp, said the UNHCR.

They are among two million people estimated to have been driven from their homes by fighting since rebels who accuse Khartoum of discrimination and neglect rose up in February 2003.

The conflict in the western region is believed to have killed 300,000 people, with Sudanese troops and government-backed Arab militias blamed for a wave of killings of indigenous minority groups in Darfur.

Renewed fighting is undermining a ceasefire between government and rebel movements which was agreed in April 2004 and which had largely held despite sporadic attacks.

The upsurge in the conflict has led to warnings that international aid operations in Darfur may have to be halted.

(AFP/ST)