Merowe Dam affected areas exploded into violence and burning
April 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The year-long tense situation in the Hamdab ( Merowe) Dam affected areas ( 350 km north of Khartoum on the river Nile Fourth cataracts) exploded into an unprecedented violence in Amri area ( the second largest affected group), when the dam authority had unilaterally decided to carry out its plans and resettle Amri group in Wadi Al Mugadam ( a desert location which experts say has been a dumping place for radioactive waste during Nemeri time).
Currents events were triggered by the authority when it decided to carry out the final survey by force.
The survey – which was supposed to take place last December – has been postponed many times due to the objection of the affected communities.
The Amri people whose area is known by its numerous land and inaccessibility refused to be resettled in Wadi Al Mugadam and chose resettlement around the reservoir shores.
The violent events started on Friday when the dam authority brought in a huge number of its militia in an attempt to uproot people and clear the area of the inhabitants.
Violent events and confrontation took place between the advancing militia and the villagers who – according to eye witness – swear to defend their land.
Two dam’s office buildings were set afire and a number of vehicles belonging to the militia and the dam security force were destroyed when a group of the militia and dam security personnel took refuge in them.
Unknown number of people has been injured, report say three of the injured are in critical conditions. Villagers were successful to turn back the militia. Reports from the area confirmed that a number of people have been arrested and their whereabouts is unknown.
Eye witnesses say tens of vehicles (lorries, trucks and private cars) loaded with villagers demanding the release of their leaders headed towards the town of Kariema ( 25 km north of the dam site) to which the villagers believe their leaders have been taken into custody by dam militia.
Analysts stress that the situation in Kariema town is very tense as the current events come at a critical time and there are fears that these events might inflame the already tense situation as the dam authority has expropriated the land of many people living in the town and the surrounding areas.
Reports say that, while the villagers are heading to Kariema, the dam authority – fearing further escalations and in an attempt to terrorise the affected communities has positioned its militia in and around the entrances and exits of the areas.
A member of the affected communities who spoke by phone from Kariema on condition of anonymity says “The affected communities believe that the blockade by the dam authority is aimed to cut off food supplies from the affected communities to bring them to submit to the will of the dam authority.
The dam authority believes that the world is now busy with Darfur and its time to dump the affected community in the desert before the world turns its attention to Hamdab plight”.
The current events represent a fresh round of the ongoing conflict between the dam authority and the affected communities.
These events could possibly set the whole of northern Sudan on spiralling confrontation particularly northern State which the dam authority inexplicably expropriated all its cultivable land last year, a decision that was met by a loud public outcry across the state.
The area is set for further confrontations and unrest, observers believe.
(ST)