SUDAN
Black Population Terrorized by Both Arab Raids and
Local Rebel Lootings
03/28/2004 - Caught into the war-torn, dry Darfur region, between the
Arab government troops' raids and the local rebel groups recruiting them
by force and looting their scarce goods, a traumatized population
experiences a hell of refugee existence in the Chad border.
BBC reported on 03/28/2004 that the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality
Movement (Jem) rebels say the government has been oppressing Blacks in favour of Arabs.
The United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, said that government-backed
Arab militias have been systematically raping and killing in Darfur.
Back on 12/9/2003, Arabicnews.com reported that rebels killed 700 government soldiers. It appears that
the government currently completing Washington-pressured peace agreements with the Black southern
rebels led by John Garang, is retaliating and trying to subdue the Darfur rebel claims of self control over the
dry area.
The leader of the Justice And Equality movement rebels, Khalil Ibrahim, warned last December that the
government forces were on their way to launch a large attack against al-Teinah border town.
On the other hand, the rebels admitted the killing of 17 out of one thousand fighters, but said it confiscated
scores of government tanks and armored vehicles.
The Justice And Equality Movement is one of two main groups of the rebels in the region, and started
fighting in February 2003 in the poor Darfur district. The movement said it wants a rotating presidential
regime and self-rule for the area.
This group, however, has no link to the southern rebels of Sudan (Sudan people army liberation army) led
by John Garang, who has been fighting against the Sudanese government since more than 20 years. The
rebels said that the isolated and arid area of Darfur does not get its fair share of Sudan's national resources./.
Conflict Destroying Livelihoods and Lives in War-Torn West
NAIROBI, 25 March (IRIN) - Conflict in Northern Darfur State of western
Sudan is devastating social infrastructure and placing an increasing number of people at risk of hunger,
according to agencies working in the region.
A survey conducted by an NGO, Intermediate Technology Development Group
(ITDG), in February and March revealed that 40,000 households in
Northern Darfur have missed this year's cropping seasons due to displacement.
Many of those who did cultivate had their crops stolen.
A spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, Laura Melo, told IRIN on
Thursday the conflict was having a "detrimental impact" on food production in the region, which was already
debilitated by four consecutive years of drought.
While the conflict had started in February 2003, it had intensified during the May planting season, she said.
Many of those who had managed to plant were forced to leave their homes before the harvest or had their
fields burned. Others have had their homes and food stocks burned and looted during attacks, she said.
With no signs of an improvement in the conflict, the next planting season in April/May may also be "very
limited", Melo warned. This would have a major impact on food availability and leave people dependent on
food aid for another year, she said.
"A widespread humanitarian disaster looms for the population of Darfur unless large-scale humanitarian
assistance is rapidly made possible," commented a humanitarian source working in the region. The cyclical
'hunger gap' period from March until rains began in June was likely to be severely exacerbated this year,
she said.
Meanwhile, many market systems in the region have been destroyed and general insecurity on roads has
halted commercial transport, according to ITDG. All markets in the Jabal Si area and most markets in
Kabkabiyah were closed, this in a region where crop failure last year made most people dependent on
markets for food, it said.
According to the survey, 60 percent of villages in Northern Darfur, home to about 1.5 million people, have
been destroyed, burned or abandoned because of fear of attacks from the warring parties. Even in
undestroyed villages, over 50 percent of households had migrated, the report said, some of them to hide in
mountainous areas and others fleeing temporarily to avoid either aerial bombardments or compulsory
recruitment by the region's two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality
Movement.
Much of the region's infrastructure and trees have also been destroyed.
In Kabkabiyah, over 150 irrigation pumps had been lost, damaged or looted from farms, and 35 shallow
wells destroyed, ITDG reported. Fruit trees in the region, a valuable sources of food, had also been
damaged or cut down - including almost 3,000 mango trees, 200 guava trees, 1,200 grapefruit trees, 900
citrus trees, and 220 banana trees.
According to the NGO, prices had risen to as high as 10 goats for one sack of millet, from one to two
goats per sack before the conflict escalated.
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