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Sporadic gunfire in Sudan’s Darfur after 132 killed
KHARTOUM, April 8, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Ambulances were fired at in Sudan’s West Darfur state Thursday after days of fighting in which at least 132 people were killed, but clashes appeared to ease, officials and residents said.
Members of the Massalit and Arab communities have fought since Saturday in and around the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, trading gun and heavy weapons fire.
The clashes have seen a power station destroyed, an ambulance attacked and a rocket-propelled grenade hitting the key Sultan Tajeldin Hospital.
Sudan’s government has declared a state of emergency in the region.
“According to medical reports, the number of dead is now 132,” Mohamed Abdallah Douma, governor of the region bordering Chad, told a news conference in Khartoum.
“The situation is now relatively stable,” he said, adding there was “looting” but “no more fighting”.
On Thursday, ambulances were fired upon as they tried to reach supplies, medics said.
“Ambulances were targeted by gunfire as they tried to reach the warehouses of the World Health Organization,” Sudan’s Doctors’ Committee said.
Douma blamed the fighting on militia fighters who had crossed over from neighbouring Chad and Libya, and had used heavy weapons.
Government forces have yet to be despatched to the region despite the declared state of emergency, the governor said.
The UN had said the conflict was between Sudan’s Massalit and Arab communities, the latest in a string of clashes since January that has forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes.
– ‘End bloodshed’: Khartoum protests –
Residents told AFP they heard only intermittent gunshots on Thursday.
“The situation is largely calm,” Mohamed Abdel Rahmane, a resident of El-Geneina, told AFP by telephone. “We hear occasional shots but we stay at home, don’t go out.”
Sudan is in the midst of a rocky transition following the toppling of long-time president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, following mass protests against his rule.
The transitional government has pushed to build peace with rebel groups in Sudan’s main conflict zones, including Darfur, where a UN peacekeeping mission wound up at the end of last year.
Thousands have fled the latest outbreak of violence, some escaping into Chad, according to the United Nations.
In January, just two weeks after the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission wound up operations, similar clashes killed more than 200 people, mostly in West Darfur.
On Thursday, dozens of people demonstrated outside the UN offices in Khartoum, some 1,100 kilometres (690 miles) east of El Geneina.
“End the bloodshed in El Geneina”,one placard read. “Disarm the militias,” read another.
“If the government is not able to protect civilians, bring back the peacekeepers,” demanded Awatef Saleh, a 23-year-old protester.
The vast Darfur region was previously ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003, leaving around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.
It flared when ethnic minority rebels rose up against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government.
Khartoum responded by unleashing a notorious Arab-dominated militia known as the Janjaweed, recruited from among the region’s nomadic tribes.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide during the Darfur conflict.
The conflict has subsided over the years, and the latest in a string of peace deals was agreed in October, but some Darfur groups did not sign up.
After years of conflict, the region is awash with automatic weapons and clashes still erupt, often over land and access to water.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2156HRS