UN reports more Darfur violence, displaced camps on edge
KHARTOUM, Sept 21 (Reuters) – African monitors will investigate reports of attacks by both African rebels and Arab militias on refugee camps and villages in Sudan’s traumatised Darfur region, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
A U.N. report sent to Reuters said that the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), one of two rebel groups fighting government forces in western Sudan, attacked a police post in North Darfur state on Sept. 18.
It also said that an international aid agency had reported attacks by armed Arab militia on the village of Amdur and Mummu, located north and northeast of Nyala, capital of South Darfur state on Sept. 16 and 17.
The aid agency said Arab militias had been burning villages in the area for the past three days.
The U.N. said that African Union (AU) monitors of a shaky April ceasefire plan to investigate these attacks and other reports of clashes between SLA and government forces.
“U.N. security officers are travelling to the Kulbus area (West Darfur) to clear new areas in Kulbus following reports that Internally Displaced People (IDPs) of Arab origin have been displaced due to recent attacks by the Sudan Liberation Army,” the U.N. report said.
A U.N. Security Council resolution has threatened possible sanctions on Sudan if it failed to stop 19 months of violence that had killed some 50,000 people.
The violence developed from years of low-level conflict between African farmers and Arab nomads over scarce resources in arid Darfur. Two rebel groups launched a revolt last year accusing the government of neglect and of arming marauding Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages.
Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.
The U.N. estimates the fighting in Darfur had forced more than 1.5 million to flee their homes with about 200,000 refugees in neighbouring Chad, triggering what it calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Tensions in the Darfur camps has been running high, with reports of unrest in areas that had been calm in recent weeks.
In Sisi camp, an international aid agency has suspended its operations after one of its national staff was publicly beaten by military officers, the report said, adding the organisation had requested an inquiry into the attack.
In Ardamata camp in West Darfur’s capital, a tree-planting session ended in violence when four people were arrested and a women’s centre was burnt down.
A statement from a news agency with close links to the govenrment, the Sudanese Media Centre, said on Tuesday the Ardamata camp was competely stable, “thanks to the efforts of the police and the support and cooperation of the inhabitants and the objectivity of the humanitarian aid within the camp.”
Last week a senior USAID official had to be evacuated as IDPs attacked and severely beat a government official in the Mornei camp in West Darfur state.