Almost 2,000 flee village after Darfur attack : aid agency

BRUSSELS, Dec 1 (AFP) — Up to 2,000 people fled the village of Saraf Ayat in Sudan’s deeply troubled western Darfur region following an attack on Tuesday, aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) said.

A Sudanese girl carries a load of firewood into the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp of Krinding on the outskirts of the western town of El-Geneina, near the border with Chad, Sept 2004. (AFP).

It said in a statement issued in Brussels that many of the people had taken refuge in the village, after fleeing their homes in the previous days, only to have to flee again.

“The fact that people are forced to flee over and over again from one place to another and can not find a safe refuge is extremely worrying,” Jerome Oberreit, a representative for MSF Belgium, said in a statement.

The aid organisation did not name the perpetrators of the attack. It said the attack came as aid workers were assisting some 1,500 refugees.

The refugees, the inhabitants of the village and the team of aid workers were evacuated, it said.

The crisis in Darfur began in earnest in February 2003 when rebels launched an insurrection to protest what they allege is the political and economic marginalisation of black Africans by the Arab-led government.

Khartoum unleashed the Arab Janjaweed, who have been blamed by officials and aid workers for killings, rape and widespread violations of human rights.

Since then, more than 70,000 people have been killed or have died from hunger and disease in the area, according to the United Nations (news – web sites), and another 1.5 million have been displaced.

The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, while the United States has accused Khartoum of carrying out genocide through its proxy militias.