Pro-government militias kill 50 in recent Darfur raids
Nov 15, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Pro-government militiamen have stepped up their attacks on villages in Darfur, killing at least 50 people in recent days, international observers in the wartorn Sudanese region said.
During one raid on a Darfur village, the janjaweed militiamen — backed by government troops — forced a number of children into a thatched hut, then set the hut ablaze, killing parents who tried to rescue the children, rebels in the region said.
The U.N. said it was looking into reports that four children and two adults were killed in the raid in the village of Madu but could not confirm whether the children were burned alive.
The Sudanese army categorically denied any connection to janjaweed attacks, saying the claims were politically motivated.
Violence has regularly marred the vast, arid Darfur region since 2003 when rebels stemming from ethnic African tribes took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum is blamed for having unleashed in response the janjaweed militias, who are accused of much of the atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 200,000 people and chased another 2,5 million from their homes.
Some in Darfur say the government has let loose new janjaweed forces in Darfur recently to put down an umbrella coalition of rebels. The group, known as the National Redemption Front, has rejected a peace deal in the region and has regularly been clashing with government forces.
Khartoum denies these claims and insists it has no control over the militiamen.
Raids in the past few days reflect an upsurge of janjaweed militia activity, said Radhia Achouri, the spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in Sudan.
“The militia have been active all along, but in terms of scope of the violence and damage, were are witnessing a new increase,” Achouri told The Associated Press on the telephone.
“Reports of 50 to 70 people killed appear very credible,” she said. But she said the specific reports could not be independently investigated because the U.N. is “drastically restricting its own movements” in the areas where attacks are taking place.
The U.N. had planned to replace the 7,000-strong AU mission in Darfur with over 20,000 blue helmets, but Khartoum strongly opposes the move. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he was working on a compromise for U.N. and AU peacekeepers to operate jointly in Darfur _ and on Wednesday he underlined that he has “not given up the idea” of sending U.N. forces.
“We are concerned that humanitarian space is shrinking in Darfur,” said U.N. humanitarian aid chief Jan Egeland, on a tour of Sudan. He warned that the violence was not only threatening civilians but also putting the lives of aid workers at risk.
The African Union said at least 30 people were killed and 40 injured in a janjaweed raid on Saturday in the North Darfur town of Sirba and that attacks were also reported in nearby areas. Achouri said the U.N. has also evacuated aid workers from the area around Sirba.
In Khartoum, the daily Al-Ayam newspaper quoted a rebel spokesman as saying that at least 80 people had been killed over the past few days in janjaweed and army raids around the town of Muhajiriah in South Darfur.
The unidentified spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement said janjaweed attacked the SLM-controled area even though the rebel group signed the Darfur Peace Agreement in May. Violence has only worsened since a faction of the SLM and Khartoum signed the deal.
Rebels from the NRF, the coalition that has rejected the peace deal, said in a statement that janjaweed backed by the army killed dozens of people over the past few days — including 15 in two separate raids on Sunday and eight on Monday in the South Darfur village of Angabo.
The NRF also said that about 500 janjaweed backed by regular Sudanese soldiers attacked the North Darfur town of Madu. The assailants “gathered some children in a grass hut and burnt them alive inside it. Parents who interfered were shot dead,” the statement said.
A U.N. official in the region said Sunday’s violence occurred when the janjaweed came to Madu to recruit fighters and were poorly received by the ethnic African villagers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the difficulties facing international workers in Darfur.
The official said observers were investigating reports that four children and two adults were killed during the Madu raid but could not confirm that children were intentionally burned alive.
Another international observer in the area said the report could be confused with nine children severely burnt in the explosion of ordnance stocked in a nearby town.
The Sudanese military categorically denied it conducted or backed any raids.
“We as army cannot engage in any such attacks or make use of militias to attack our own citizens,” the office of the army spokesman said. “We do not have any relationship with such activities.”
(AP)