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With all eyes on Khartoum since General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane’s coup on October 25, western Sudan has once again plunged into violence. In a few weeks, clashes in the region left 200 dead and several hundred injured. Nearly 83,000 civilians have had to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“The state, justice and police are absent subscribers. Impunity reigns, there is a total security vacuum and weapons are proliferating ”, denounces the doctor Ibrahim Adam Othman, of the committee of the doctors of Western Darfur: “Many of the injured have died because it was impossible for them to reach a medical facility on time and because clinics in rural areas do not have enough equipment. “
Between November 17 and 19, several villages in the locality of Jebel Moon were attacked by militiamen from Arab tribes mounted on pick-ups, motorcycles and horses. In this area located a few dozen kilometers from the Chadian border, around ten villages were set on fire and nearly 2,000 families fled, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). The communes of Kreinik and Sirba, further south, were affected a few days later, between December 5 and 7. Massacres targeting civilians and camps for internally displaced persons also took place in surrounding villages.
The conflict in Darfur, which erupted in 2003 between forces of the regime of ex-President Omar Al-Bashir and rebellions of ethnic minorities who consider themselves marginalized, has left more than 300,000 dead and nearly 3 million displaced. . Deployed at the height of the violence to fight the rebels, armed militias mainly composed of Arab nomads played a major role in the operations of repression, rape and ethnic cleansing carried out by the military-Islamist regime.
“We fear escalation”
“After a few years of relative stability, we thought we could turn the page, but the situation has exploded again, especially in West Darfur, and, for the moment, there is nothing to suggest that this violence can be contained. On the contrary, we fear escalation ”, warns William Carter of the NRC, worried about the security vacuum that complicates the access of humanitarian organizations to affected areas.
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