Darfuris fleeing villages, report govt attacks
By Opheera McDoom
KALMA CAMP, Sudan, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Darfuri Dowsa Ahmed Hassan said he was standing in the market place when he heard the Antonov plane’s drone and watched it drop three bombs on his village, killing a mother and her three children.
The 30-year-old farmer fled his home in Marla village and walked for two days with his two young boys and wife to arrive at the overflowing Kalma camp, which is struggling to keep up with new arrivals from recent attacks on villages in South Darfur state.
“I was standing in the market. The first thing I heard was the Antonov and the helicopters,” Hassan said of the attacks on Dec. 9th or 10th. “The bombing killed a woman and her three children in the wadi next to the village,” he added.
Hassan’s family was one of the few from Marla, southeast of South Darfur state capital Nyala, to make it to the relative safety of Kalma camp, which shelters more than 100,000 people who have fled their homes during a 22-month-old rebellion in the remote western Sudanese region.
About 1.6 million people in Darfur have been forced from their homes since a rebel uprising launched in early 2003 was countered by government troops and their militia proxies.
Many others from Marla sought refuge in areas east of Nyala, where fighting was still going on, he said.
Aid agencies evacuated their staff from Marla, a village of around 2,000, last week after reports of fighting between government troops and rebels there.
Hassan said 30 vehicles, filled with around 1,000 government soldiers, and a number of Arab militia on camel and horses attacked the village soon after the bombing and two helicopter gunships opened fire.
Villagers, rebels and aid workers have often reported air raids are frequently followed by ground attack by Arab militias, known as Janjaweed. The government is accused of backing the Janjaweed but denies the charges, calling them outlaws.
NEW ARRIVALS
The governor of South Darfur state admitted there was fighting in Marla, but said rebels had attacked a government convoy on a routine patrol there.
He denied any reports of bombing, which would be a violation of a shaky April ceasefire signed between Darfur rebels and the government.
Hassan said the attack killed 12 people and injured many others. “I will not go back. I’m going to live here now,” he said.
Kalma camp is now bigger than many of Darfur’s towns with bustling markets catering for inhabitants, some of whom have lived there for more than a year.
As Hassan spoke, behind him new families, some with donkeys and carts loaded with their belongings, and others carrying very little, arrived. The newly displaced were fleeing fighting east of the camp, they said.
The newcomers set up shelters made of twigs. They had not come across empty food aid bags or U.N. plastic sheeting to protect their new homes from Darfur’s cold winter wind.
As night falls over the dusty plains of Darfur’s desert landscape, they huddle together to keep warm.
The United Nations calls the situation in Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week Darfur was plagued by banditry, rape and village burnings with 2.3 million people in desperate need of aid.
“THEY KILLED MANY PEOPLE”
Mohamed Ali Adam, 24, has not seen his wife and seven-month-old baby since his village was attacked last Saturday.
He said he was on his farm between the villages of Um Ze’eifa, Hashaba and Nira when an Antonov plane and four helicopters attacked. The helicopters fired but the Antonov just circled ominously above.
Then the Janjaweed came riding in on camels and horses. “They killed many people, I cannot count.” He took his four younger brothers and fled.
Heavily pregnant Mahasin Ramadan said she was in her home in Nira when she heard the Janjaweed ride in. She grabbed her three young children and ran off into the forest to hide. When the fighting did not stop, she walked without food for three days to reach Kalma.
She said she heard the news of her husband’s death along the way. The Janjaweed had taken him and three others out to the woods. He was found dead, shot once in the stomach.
The government says the rebels are attacking the villages, displacing thousands more. But those displaced say there were no rebel forces in their villages.