Sudan’s Janjaweed force thousands of Chadians out of villages

May 8, 2008 (GOUROUNKOUN, Chad) — Chadian village elders have told how how the feared Janjaweed Arab militia from Sudan and other bandits have forced thousands of people from their villages and into refugee camps.

“They killed us. We couldn’t go back home,” Adoum Moursal, a village chief, told EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana during a visit to the volatile border region.

“We are cattle raisers, traders, farmers, and they came and raped our women, killed our children and stole our animals,” said another elder Mahamat Seid.

The Janjaweed militia, allies of the Sudanese government in the Darfur conflict, have crossed the border and are operating in Chadian villages, according to many accounts.

Moursal is one of 16,000 members of the Dadjo community in eastern Chad who have been forced out of their native villages and have made new homes in Gouronkoun, near the huge Goz Beida refugee camp.

The Dadjos have been in Gourounkoun for two years, having arrived from their home villages 180 kilometres (112 miles) away, after years of Janjaweed harassment, Moursal said.

“We want the government to chase out those who chased us out,” Moursal said.

Thirteen-year-old Ahamat Annour recalled how his family fled on foot at night leaving everything behind, when he was just eight years old. They walked for several days. “I wept a lot. I remember my village. Sometimes I dream about it.” he said.

Although Gourounkoun has some fertile land, most of it belongs to residents in nearby Goz Beida, where there are thousands of Sudanese refugees.

“Often the displaced are forced to go far to work their plot of land,” said a Goz Beida representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

Although government efforts and the presence of European peacekeepers have made the Goz Beida zone relatively more peaceful, the displaced Chadians still want to return to their homes.

“We want to go back home, what we really want is security to be able to go back home,” said Mahamat Seid, thanking all those who had helped and fed them when they arrived empty-handed.

Speaking on behalf of all displaced people, Moursal said they could only go back if security was ensured. “We can’t risk being attacked again. That would be even harder,” he said.

Solana promised that the European Union would do everything possible to “work towards security so that you can go back home.”

The Dadjo make make up only a fraction of an estimated 178,000 Chadians languishing in camps alongside 240,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled strife torn Darfur.

The Chad-Sudanese border has witnessed endless rebel and militia incursions, which have lead to the deaths of many civilians and three foreign aid workers since January alone.

(AFP)