Some 56 Killed in W. Sudan Militia Raid – Witnesses

By Nima Elbagir

NYALA, Sudan, May 23 (Reuters) – Arab militiamen have killed at least 56 people in a raid in western Sudan, villagers say, just days after the government declared the troubled region stable.

The militiamen, known as janjaweed, raided Abga Rajil village 50 km (30 miles) south of Nyala town on Saturday, witnesses said.

Abdel-Rahman Rizk, 29, speaking from a Nyala hospital bed where he was recovering on Sunday from a bullet wound to the thigh, said the militiamen arrived on horses, camels and a car and surrounded the village.

“They were firing and people were scattering and they set fire to the houses and then they started picking off people as they ran out of their houses,” he told Reuters.

Ibrahim Adam, also from the village, said: “The tally of those we buried was 56. Forty of them we buried in one grave.”

Others from the area gave the same figure, although an official from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), one of the two main rebel groups in Darfur, said he had understood 46 were killed.

Independent verification is hard to obtain in the remote Darfur region.

Villagers and rights groups accuse Khartoum of arming the janjaweed to loot and burn African villages and fight a proxy war against rebels who launched a revolt last year demanding a fairer share of power and resources.

The government denies the charge, calling the janjaweed outlaws.

The United Nations says fighting in the impoverished and arid Darfur region has displaced about a million people and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The rebels signed a ceasefire with the government in early April, but have since accused it of several violations.

The government said on Monday that Darfur was now stable and security would be maintained by police.

RELUCTANT TO GO HOME

But many of those displaced from Darfur fear new attacks and are reluctant to return to their homes and fields, where they should now be planting crops ahead of approaching rains.

“It is over for us. By now we should have cleaned the land in preparation to have finished planting by early June,” said Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Ishaq, a tribal elder who fled to Kas, some 70 km (45 miles) northeast of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.

Farmers like him are among 7,000 displaced people in makeshift dwellings around Kas who will now have to scratch out an existence on seed that should have been used for new crops.

Aid workers fear the spread of disease.

“Our priority is health. These people are out in the open and the rains will affect the health of the displaced people who are already malnourished,” Mohammed Abdullah, administrative manager for the Kas region, said.