Janjaweed Attack Humanitarian Aid Convoy in Route to Conga Haraza City, Darfur

August 23, 2005

The Sudanese government continues to sabotage the efforts of aid workers in Darfur . On Thursday August 11, 2005 at 12:00 noon, a convoy of trucks was attacked while transporting aid from Algeneina to Conga Haraza City, an area southwest of Algenenina, in Western Darfur. Damanga sources have identified the attackers as Janjaweed Militia.

Recently bandits have been blamed for many of the attacks against aid supplies in Darfur. While looting and cattle thievery have traditionally threatened settled farmers and caused mayhem in Darfur, the attacks that Damanga has learned about, which are being carried out against humanitarian aid trucks, are not the work of bandits. The international community and the media are being led to believe that bandits are the cause of these targeted attacks. Major media sources and Special UN envoy Jon Pronk have even at times characterized these attacks as being the work of armed bandits.¹Although banditry has always been associated with the Arab Janjaweed, (translated literally, janjaweed means man with gun on horse), it was not until the government of Sudan gave them support and arms that they began to carry out and pursue the governments systematic policy of ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

Crimes committed by the Janjaweed militia should not be labeled as banditry. Damanga contacts living in Western Darfur believe that the government of Sudan has deliberately confused the media and others by describing the Janjaweed as simple bandits. This kind of labeling can only lead to the conclusion that Darfur is plagued by common criminals, and that it’s territories are threatened by lawlessness. Labeling the crimes of the Janjaweed as banditry is another deliberate tactic being used by the Government of Sudan to deceive in order to deny their involvement in the sabotage of the international aid efforts in Darfur.

Damanga's sources in Western Darfur have consistently observed that targeted attacks against aid supplies and personnel are the work of the Janjaweed militia. Western Darfur is heavily monitored by Sudanese government soldiers and the Janjaweed militia. Government and Janjaweed roadblocks and checkpoints are maintained throughout Darfur especially in the southwest area of Algenenina, where the following attack of August 11, occurred:

On August 11, a convoy of aid trucks was stopped by Janjaweed soldiers and aid workers were forcibly removed from the vehicles and beaten, according to Damanga's sources . The truck drivers were also beaten badly and warned that if they were seen driving a truck filled with food or medical aid again, that they would be killed. The Janjaweed also killed two government policemen who had been guarding the convoy. The government of Sudan often recruits black Africans from Darfur to serve as police officers, but because they are black African their lives and positions are not valued and so they are often the target of attacks.² The trucks did not have identifying markings on them and Damanga learned that they had been rented by relief organizations to transport aid. The specific contents of the trucks and the organization who was bringing the aid to the refugee camps is unknown at this time. All of this was reported by Damanga sources.

Two weeks earlier in another area of the Algeneina region, Janjaweed forces committed another fatal attack, according to Damanga sources. On July 29, 2005, at Mistery in the south of al-Geneina , Janjaweed forces, sponsored by the forces of the Government of Sudan, attacked in the Mistery area and killed three persons as follows:

1-Ms.Zainab Ishag Abdulkerim, 18 years old.

2-Ms.Khadija Zakeria Ali, 53 years old.

3-Mr.Abbaker Yahya Abdalla, 28 years old.

Furthermore, many more people were injured in this same attack, but Damanga sources have been unable to determine the exact number. During this attack a large amount of money and some animals were looted. The attack occured early in the morning on July 29, 2005.