New Darfur Fighting Kills Up to 105, Thousands Flee
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) – Renewed fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region may have killed up to 105 civilians and displaced more than 9,000 last week, the United Nations said Wednesday.
“It has been confirmed that the village of Hamada was nearly totally destroyed and that up to 105 civilians may have been killed, with the majority of victims being women and children,” U.N. spokesman George Somerwill told a news conference.
A U.N. assessment team was sent last week to the area of Hamada, Juruf and Gemeiza villages in South Darfur state, where the government launched a military campaign in December it said was to clear the roads of banditry.
Aid community sources and rebels have said government planes bombed the area on Jan. 19.
Somerwill did not know how the people were killed, who the fighting was between or if aerial bombardment had caused the high number of casualties in Hamada.
Aerial bombardment would be a direct violation of security protocols signed between the government and the two main Darfur rebel groups in November.
The government says it uses aircraft to protect key supply routes and civilians from rebels, but it denies dropping bombs.
Somerwill said 8,000 refugees had fled the fighting to Menawashi and 1,250 to Mershing, both nearby in South Darfur state. But he said the withdrawal from Darfur of Save the Children UK late last year had left the areas with “serious gaps in health and nutrition.”
Save the Children was the only international agency working in the areas. Others are now looking at taking over.
AID WORKERS KIDNAPPED
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA) said three of its Sudanese workers had been kidnapped in December in rebel-held Labado to the east of South Darfur state, where they were trying to drill wells.
“ADRA is appealing for the release of three agency workers that were abducted at gunpoint along with ADRA project vehicles … while traveling through the then rebel-controlled area of Labado,” said the statement, posted on ADRA’s Web site on Tuesday.
Aid agencies often try to secure the release of kidnapped staff using mediators, away from media attention.
The government occupied Labado during the December campaign and has so far refused to withdraw to previous lines, unless the African Union takes up positions there to prevent rebels retaking the area.
Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja are due to restart in the first week of February, but there is some doubt over whether one rebel group will attend. The previous round collapsed in December with rebels blaming the military operations in South Darfur.
The African Union monitoring mission has expressed concern over the fragmentation of Darfur’s two main rebel groups. There are now four known armed factions in Darfur, with many armed gangs also operating.
The two main groups took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect and favoring Arab tribes over non-Arabs in the remote region. The rebels say the government armed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to attack and drive non-Arabs from their land.
Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies links to the Janjaweed, saying they are outlaws.
The Darfur conflict was not covered by a peace deal concluded this month between Khartoum and southern rebels ending more than two decades of fighting in southern Sudan.