Sudan’s ragtag rebels vow to fight on
By Silvia Aloisi
SHIGAKARO, Sudan, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Sharif Abdallah Mohammed Nour wanted to be a doctor but has ended up fighting for the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) instead.
Sipping sugary tea in the rebel-held village of Shigakaro in northern Darfur, the 24-year-old said he joined the rebels after a raid on his village in June last year by government troops and horseback Arab militias known as Janjaweed.
“As a child, I never expected to be a fighter. But after what happened, I went to look for them,” he said, his head wrapped in a yellow turban, a Kalashnikov assault rifle at his feet.
The SLA is one of two rebel groups that took up arms last year in Darfur, accusing Sudan’s government of discriminating against African tribes in the remote western region and arming Arab militias to drive them off their land.
The violence has killed an estimated 50,000 people and forced 1.3 million more from their homes, mostly into camps within government-held areas of Darfur or neighbouring Chad.
“I was out herding cattle with my uncle, when suddenly we saw many horsemen coming towards us, shooting,” said Nour.
He hid behind a tree trunk. But when the firing stopped, his uncle had been killed, his cattle stolen and his house burnt. A month later he volunteered to fight for the SLA.
“I will fight until they meet our demands, until we can participate in power,” said Nour, who wears around his neck a string of small, square leather pouches filled with Koranic verses he hopes will protect him from enemy bullets.
For Nour, the war is about getting clean water, schools and hospitals in Darfur, a mostly desert region the size of France where Arab nomads and African subsistence farmers have long vied for meagre resources.
“If people here become educated, if they emancipate, then they will know what their rights are. If they don’t, they will be like animals. And the government wants us to stay like that, like animals,” he said.
RAG-TAG WARRIORS
Riding by the dozen in rusty, roofless pick-up trucks prone to breakdowns, sleeping in the open on dusty rugs and feeding on a dense, green soup known as mush, the SLA’s young fighters — some of them children barely taller than their AK-47s — hardly look an invincible force.
What is more, the barren land under their control is now dotted with deserted villages, many razed to the ground.
The civilians in northern Darfur who have not fled to camps hide in caves or under trees. Many share the rebels’ anger against the government, but know full well the ragtag warriors who say they want to protect them can do little against the might of Khartoum’s Antonov bombers.
Yet the rebels have pulled off some dramatic strikes on army and police posts, such as an attack on Darfur’s historic city of El-Fasher last year.
The campaign of killing, looting and raping unleashed by the Janjaweed seems only to have stiffened their resolve.
“I saw many people killed. Now I am defending myself and my family,” said Ibrahim, 25, jumping off a scruffy Toyota Land Cruiser sprayed patchily in black for camouflage.
Scribbled on both doors, which would not open, was the name of his unit, “Fast Attackers”.
Violence has continued in Darfur despite a ceasefire agreed between the government and rebels in April.
Some senior rebel officials now speak of forcing a change of government in Khartoum, though it is not clear how they could achieve that.
“I’ve lived 40 years in Khartoum and this land has no attraction for me, but I am here to fight for the survival of our people,” said the SLA’s Souleymane Mohammed Jamous, who coordinates access for aid agencies to rebel-held Darfur using a satellite phone.
“I will only go back when I have defeated (President Omar Hassan) al-Bashir,” he said.