Clashes and violence paralyse the entire country in each aspect of the everyday life of the inhabitants and the civilians are always the most affected.
A tribal chief, Ibrahim Ahmad, reported on Saturday that in Aboudos, 90 km south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, Sudan, landowners were visiting their farms and fields. This visit happened for the first time in years as the region is affected by violence and two months ago the government allowed a meeting between the original owners and the new ones. An agreement confirmed that owners could return to their fields. Unfortunately, this little hope was wiped away when a Sudanese paramilitary group killed at least 20 people on Friday, including children and left others wounded. An anonymous testimony said that "the gunmen arrived on pickup trucks, some of which had machine guns on them. They surrounded us from all four sides and opened fire." Landowners went back to their lands as they thought the violence was over. Darfur region has been marked by clashes between ethnic minority rebels since 2003 and only one week before, the government-linked armed groups targeted a protest camp in North Darfur killing 13 people as reported by Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Al-Nayer, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement.
Many clashes started under the government Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, president of Sudan until 2019, who is condemned by the International Criminal Court over charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Rebels accused him of racial discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion. Despite a preliminary agreement signed in January between the government and a coalition of nine rebel groups (including factions from Darfur), the fighting has not stopped. Between June and July, protesters have camped outside a government building in the Central Darfur town of Nertiti asking for more security after killings and looting incidents on farmlands and properties.
To learn more, please read:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1709786/middle-east
https://ewn.co.za/2020/07/25/gunmen-kill-at-least-20-farmers-in-sudan-s-darfur-tribal-chief
Author: Giulia Francescon; Editor: Shrabya Ghimire
