At least 213 people have been killed in West Darfur over the past week, according to regional authorities. Clashes condemned by the UN, which on Wednesday April 27 called for a rapid and independent investigation.
With our correspondent in Khartoum, Elliott Brachet
The violence began last Friday in the town of Kreinik, mainly inhabited by the Massalit tribe. They spread towards El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, about 80 km away. Since Monday, Geneina has been a ghost town: all health centers are closed, as well as the main market and the airport. And the situation is still tense.
Despite the deployment of Sudanese armed forces in the city center and on the main avenues, clashes continue, said Adam Haroun, a resident of Geneina. ” There were violent assaults from all sides. Wednesday night, we heard bursts of gunfire in all neighborhoods. We got up in the morning, the situation seemed calm. There is no escape, we are not safe. We cannot leave our homes for fear of finding ourselves in the crossfire. It’s awful. »
The fighting pitted the Rapid Support Forces of General Hemetti, number 2 of the Sudanese junta, against a rebel movement that signed the Juba peace accords. For Adam Rojal, coordinator of IDP camps in the region, this is proof that the conflict is political. ” People describe what is happening here as tribal clashes. It is a mistake ! We are in the presence of militias attacking with state-funded weapons and the support of the Rapid Support Forces. They want to continue the genocide in Darfur. »
In the village of Kreinik, scene of massacres last Sunday, residents say they are surrounded by armed militias. Impossible to get out, impossible to receive help.
Darfur has been plagued by communal violence for several decades between Massalit farmers on one side and Arab herders on the other for control of land and access to water. So why has this violence increased in recent months?
The increase in violence is above all the consequence and the product of the political transition that began in 2019 in Sudan, following the fall of President Bashir […] The armed militias feel freer hands having the regime’s number two [le général Hemetti, NDLR] which comes from their ranks. This gives them a lot of freedom to act without there being any real response from the government and that is what is shocking for the moment. […] Khartoum may not have an interest in wanting to control Darfur.
François Sennesael, researcher at the University of Oxford