Militiamen kill four villagers in North Darfur

September 19, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Four civilians were killed and three others injured in an attack carried out by militiamen Friday on a village located in North Darfur state, an eyewitness said.

The armed men who were ridding 10 four-wheel drive vehicles (Land Cruiser) with some others ridding camels, looted almost all the houses in Umray village in Kutum county, 120 km north-west to El-Fasher.

The eyewitness told Sudan Tribune that the assailants who are suspected to be part of the government militia headed back to Kutum town with their booty.

He added the gunmen looted all the flour mill machines and water pumps, and as result all the villagers are suffering from an acute shortage of water and mills after the attack.

The source went further to claim that the purpose of such attacks is to force the villagers to evacuate the area definitively, pointing that the inhabitants are mainly women; children and elders.

To fight a rebellion that erupted in 2003 in Darfur region, the Sudanese government armed the Arab tribes, mainly pastoralists, to fight insurgents from the African tribes, who are farmers. The two groups have often conflict over water and land in the arid region.

Observers agree that the conflict has now changed the demography of the region pointing to the migration of Arab tribes mainly from Chad to Darfur.

The need to provide food of crop and animal origin to meet the growing demands push the tribes that fought alongside the government to expand its control over neighbouring lands particularly when they are inhabited by ”unfriendly” groups, they say. They add that this happens particularly when the government is unable to produce food or to impose its authority.

(ST)