Vulnerable ( IDPs ) At The Mercy Of Untouchable Militiamen in Darfur By Khalid Abdallah

10:49 PM August, 04 2018

Sudanese Online
Khalid Abdallah-Sudan
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The severe humanitarian situation in Darfur’s camps has forced a significant number of Internally displaced persons(IDPs) back to their occupied villages for farming. The returnees are enduring a spate of attacks, which are carried out by new settlers, who are heavily armed and untouchable. These series of assaults are being committed across the region, particularly, in the autumn season when IDPs intend to make use of this season.
One of the most horrible attack took place in late June 2018, in Hegir Tonjo Village southern of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State. 9 people have been killed, 5 injured and more than 120 families fled the area when attackers, riding camels attacked the people at the local market. Following the accident a leader of the village, Abker Rahma, stated to (Radio Dabanga broadcasting from the Netherlands )that the police in the village has been notified as well as the African Union-United Nation Hybrid Mission in Darfur( UNAMID). He further confirmed that the governor of the state has visited the area but no legal action has been taken against the perpetrators.
In this regard, the secretary general of Kalma Camp( the biggest IDP camp in Darfur) Salih Abdallah, confirmed to the same radio station that approximately of 120 families have made their way back to the camp after the attack.
These aggression has happened almost every year. In June 2017 at the same village, a pro-government militia killed 6 people, other 6 were injured and possessions were looted as well. As a result, people were driven back to Kalma Camp.
In July 2018 a tribe leader mayor, Gibreel Ahmed, and his wife were assassinated in Dagrys village 12km west Nyala. The leader had served as a chief of the Voluntary Return Committee to his area in several camps.
He had managed to convince around 500 families to return according to media reports, but the area was completely occupied by new settlers against whom he had taken a case to a court in Nyala. Afterward, Gibreel, had been threatened to stop the legal procedures that were following. A youth activist Ahmed Adam, based in the city confirmed that Gibreel, on the next day of the assassination, was heading to Nyala for a legal session but attackers fired bullets, at his home killing his wife immediately, while he was injured and taken to hospital where he passed away after a week.
Recently, a commissioner of the voluntary return Committee, Taj El-Din Ibrahim, has assured that 4 suspects are arrested concerning the assassination of the leader. It is obvious that the increase of attacks against returnees raises a genuine question about peace in Darfur, as the government insists that peace has been achieved. The government declared 2016 as a year of dissolving the IDP camps. Since then, the state has been adopting every method possible in order to bring the indigenous residents back to their places. Last year a campaign for collecting weapons was launched, which the government claimed it was successful. Furthermore, the tribes' leaders in West and South Darfur were dismissed. In other words, the step is widely seen as a pressure against those who fail to push their followers back to the villages. However, this ongoing killing of civilians is a strong evidence that the situation is far more dangerous than what it has been reflecting on Sudan’s media. This trend of violence is also likely to escalate as, US dollar is about to equal 50 Sudanese pounds. Meaning that militiamen will be more and more dependable on their weapons. The extension of the African Union-United Nation Hybrid Mission in Darfur until 30 June 2019 by the Security Council stands as another evidence that the situation in the country is not stable.
In light of all these facts, a new peace approach is needed in Darfur as the Abuja peace agreement 2006, Al-Doha Peace Agreement 2011 and more than 43 agreements with small defected groups did not address the land issue, justice, weapons and other pressing demands that concern the Darfurian. But is the current government able to attain that؟ This is still doubtful.
The writer is available through, khalaswd7866@gmail.

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