Janjaweed Increase Campaign of Violence During Ramadan

November 7, 2005

The people of Darfur have just finished celebrating Eid Al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Traditionally Eid is a time of peace in the Muslim world where friends and family come together to renew community ties and to thank God for his blessings. In 1999 the Government of Sudan and its allies, the Janjaweed, took advantage of the festivities of Eid to savagely launch their first major attack against many Darfurian villages.

During Ramadan this year the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy received dispatches from correspondents on the ground in Darfur who had received menacing threats directly from the Janjaweed stating: "Just wait until Ramadan is over". The correspondents were terrified of what might happen during and immediately after Eid. Damanga awaits further news from these correspondents, but the Janjaweed have already distorted the celebration of peace and brotherhood by turning it into a time of heightened terror.

Three Damanga correspondents in Al-Geneina, the capitol of the Western State of Darfur, have reported an increasing campaign of violence and intimidation in the larger towns and adjoining refugee camps. There is no longer anything worth plundering in rural villages so the Janjaweed have begun to loot black African shops in the towns. The Sudanese government has given the Janjaweed carte blanche to set up checkpoints around the larger towns and to rove through the refugee camps. They are stopping and intimidating anyone with anything worth stealing. The Janjaweed are now targeting all blacks who they believe have resources, especially shopkeepers, and the government's security services are doing nothing.

The three correspondents have confirmed four specific incidents in the past month that exemplify this trend.

During the first week of Ramadan, around October 7, 2005, Janjaweed militia looted Abdullah Adam Ali's shop in Al-Geneina, stealing everything.

They also cleared out Abdul Mubarak's store inside of the Kerdang Refugee camp on October 26. This attack, in the heart of a camp for displaced people, is especially worrying.

On Thursday November 3, two children of Mohamed Abderahman Bakhit were herding the family's flock of sheep just outside the Cici Refugee Camp, two or three kilometers from Al-Geneina. Janjaweed militia appeared in broad daylight and assaulted the children with whips. The boys fled back to the camp and told their father who tried to stop the Janjaweed from stealing his livestock. The Janjaweed shot Bakhit in each leg, breaking both, and then fled with fifty sheep and one horse. Damanga spoke with two correspondents whose names are omitted for their safety. They reported that they had just visited Bakhit in the main hospital in Al-Geneina where he is recovering. They report that the brazen daylight attack is representative of the deteriorating conditions in the camps on the outskirts of the bigger towns.

On the night of Saturday November 5, 2005 in the Hai-Althora district of Al-Geneina several vehicles stopped suddenly in front of the home of Ibrahim (our sources were not able to confirm his last name), a member of the Barno ethnic group. Several men stormed out of the vehicles pointing guns in Ibrahim's face and demanded that he unlock his adjoining store. Being proud of his business, he initially resisted, and was beaten. He then opened the store and the intruders stole everything of value from his home and his store and sped away.

On the morning of Sunday November 6 he went to the police to make a report. Ibrahim accompanied the police who were able to follow the fresh tracks in the dirt road all the way to the Hai-Elgabal district on the flat top of a mountain. Amazingly one set of tracks from the robbery ended with a car belonging to the Public Defense Army. Another set of tracks ended at the home of Abdul-Nabi Dahlob, one of the Janjaweed leaders. When the police realized whose home they were at they politely asked if Dahlob would return the merchandize to the owner. He responded: "Sure I will".