Sudanese Government-Supported Arab Militias continue to terrorize non-Arabs in Western Sudan (6/16/2001)

In the past few months, Sudanese government-supported Arab militias in western Sudan launched several attacks on Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleit villages, causing many deaths and enormous property losses. The racist attacks come at a critical time for the long-suffering people of western Sudan as they grapple with famine and contemplate further victimization by the Sudanese army and its allied militias in the wake of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) triumphs over government forces in Bahr El Ghazal . Following the latest military development, the SPLA is poised to widen its military operations in the oil-producing areas and to extend its activities into western Sudan . The Sudanese army and its allied militias are likely to escalate attacks on blacklisted groups, the non-Arab ethnic groups, on the pretext of countering rebel infiltration into western Sudan .

Since March 2001, the Arab militias and, in some cases the Sudanese army, have killed people, including women and children, looted livestock and burned down villages. On 29 March, the militias killed 27 persons from Fur ethnic group and 15 others from Massaleit ethnic group in Zalingei town. In the same week, on 4 April, the militias butchered 11 persons in Shoewa village and stole 70 heads of cattle. The following day, between El Fasher and Nyala, 31 persons from Zaghawa and Massaleit ethnic groups died in another militia attack. On 13 April, 163 houses in Deli village were torched, and on 15 April, 60 houses in Gurab village and several houses in 6 villages in the area of Milio, situated south of Kabkabia town, were set ablaze. The combined death toll of the attacks on Deli, Gurab and Milio exceeded 100 people, including 13 women and 5 children. The below are the names of some of the dead:

1. Abul Shakur Ali- 24 years

2. Ishaq Adam Musa- 4 years

3. Hassan Abdallah Ibrahim- 40 years

4. Abulnur Abdallah Ibrahim- 29 years

5. Musa Adam Ahmad- 29 years

6. Adam Ahmed Abakkar- 27 years

7. Mohamed Adam Ali- 25 years

8. Abdallah Daod Abdallah- 42 years

9. Abbakar Abdallah Adam- 35 years

10. Mohamad Issa- 38 years

On 6 May, the Zaghawa village of Khazan Abu Gedad came under a brutal attack, which reduced it to ashes and left many innocent people dead. The perpetrator of this heinous crime, committed in supported of Arab militias repulsed by the Zaghawa tribesmen in an earlier confrontation, was the Sudanese army, which deployed machine guns mounted on vehicles and helicopter gun ships against the mostly unarmed Zaghawa civilians. The dead included:

1. Abd Elkareem Dain Harran .

2. Zakaria Faudl Jari

3. Abd Elraheem Khater Bashir

4. Hamed Faggar Ahmed

5. Adam Mani Jali

6. Eissa A. Rehman Jali

7. Nil Sulaiman Saleh Harran

8. Ahmen Bashir Tahir

9. Bakheet Saleh Harren

10. Ali Hassan Ishag

11. Hamed Moussa Jalo

12. Abd Elrehman Zakaria Jali

13. Bosharah Ismael Tahri

14. Moussa Teben Nasr

15. Ismael Adam Nasr

16. Ashmed Khames Dekairy

17. Abdalla Salem Tgabo

18. Yahia Sulaiman Abbakar

19. Abdallah Ali Osman

20. Yousef Abdalla Hammad

21. Abd Elareem Ali Bagari

22. Tegel Borme

23. Bakheet Sulaiman Abd El rhman

24. Abdalla Ishag Abdalla

25. Slaik Eltom Dahia

26. Younes Moussa Ellaher

27. Abdalla Abbakar Nour

28. Abdalla Hasballa Edrees

29. Bahr Elaain Dago Jabbar

30. Hassan Sulaiman Ali

31. Salabo Hareem Abdalla

32. Adam Sandouk Mahmoud

33. Hussain Bashir Arko

34. Abd Elkareem Amer Mohamad

35. Badawi Bashir Elsaclig

36. Hamed Madebo Moussa

37. Younes Bashir El Sadig

38. Abd El Kader Yagoub Shatta

39. Ibrahim Abd Elrahman Edrees

40. Abdalla Arga Shagi

41. Abbas Salch Nada

42. Jabbar Abdo Mohamad

43. Adam El Tegani Helo

44. Ahmed Hamed Nour

45. Khater Moussa Abdalla

46. Zakaria Mohamed A. Elnabi

47. Mohamed Ahmed Edrees

48. Abdalla Ahmed Edrees

49. Sulaiman Abdalla Arga

50. Bakheet Abd Elrahman

51. Abd El Kareem Daoud Mohamed

52. Abd El Magid Mohamed Ali

53. Abd El Kareem Salim Nahar

54. El Taher Abd Elrahman Ali

55. Abdalla Bah Eldeen Nasr

56. Sharaf Ismail Nasr

The local mass media, quoting Sudanese government officials and supporters, produced distorted reports about the grave violations of human rights in western Sudan . The massacres and looting by Arab militias and Sudanese government security forces were covered-up and explained away as isolated attacks by bandits and robbers. In truth, it is a racist campaign, in line with government policy, to exterminate or drive away the African people from their lands. The implementation of the government policy is hidden from the outside world because western Sudan is not readily accessible and the government security maintains an effective blockage of the areas targeted by the Arab militias and their supplier and protector, the Sudanese army. A glimpse of the gruesome situation emerges from the narrations of people, some survivors of militia attacks, who managed to escape from the region.

Until such a time that independent human rights organizations and activists are allowed unimpeded access to western Sudan , the government will continue to dupe the world, and hence implement its policy of ethnic cleansing with impunity. The government machinery and its mass media know no bounds when it comes to lying and disinformation. Believing that human rights are universal, the international community should pressure the Sudanese regime to stop the killings and looting, and to allow international human rights organizations access to western Sudan.