Continuing violence breeding tension in North Darfur - sources

Attacks by armed gangs on internally displaced persons (IDPs) and clashes between armed groups have continued in the troubled Sudanese state of North Darfur, creating "a fragile security situation" and widespread fear among civilians living in camps within the region, humanitarian sources said on Thursday. A source in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, told IRIN that a number of IDPs from Zam Zam camp were detained at a police checkpoint on Tuesday without being told why they were held. Later, when they were allowed to go, armed men attacked them and reportedly raped a number of women. According to another source, another group of 3,000 IDPs who had fled their villages in early September and camped in El Bisharia, 2.5 km south of El Fasher, had reportedly been forced to return to their villages about 10 days ago. But after they arrived at their homes, many of them were attacked forcing some to flee into the bushes or to El Fasher. "The IDPs reported one boy shot by the armed men," a source said. The IDPs, from six villages around El Fasher, including Abu Delieg, Fireash, Shawa, Saroor, Umm Gamina and Bargo, had initially said they fled their villages after being attacked by a group of armed men between 29 August and 2 September. They believed the attackers were Janjawid militia. The attackers, according to the IDPs, had raped, looted and beaten many of the residents. The source in El Fasher told IRIN that reports of violent attacks by armed men had also been received from Tawillah town. A humanitarian source said the IDP camps there had experienced "a lot of insecurity recently". NGOs operating in South Darfur reported that on Tuesday that renewed fighting had driven at least 5,000 people from their homes within three days. The displaced, they added, were now seeking shelter under trees and had no food, water or shelter. It was not immediately clear who was fighting who, Martha Clarke, head of public relations for Action by Churches Together (ACT)/Caritas, told IRIN. But in Khartoum, the Sudanese Minister of State at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Muhammad Yusuf Abdallah, accused rebel groups in Darfur of violating a ceasefire agreement reached earlier with the government. ACT/Caritas in a news release said its field staff on the ground had heard gunshots when fighting erupted in the Taaisha area of South Darfur on 25 September. Thousands of the displaced, it added, had sought refuge nearby. "They are sitting under trees, seeking some comfort from the burning sun," ACT/Caritas said in the news release. "Most of them left without any or very little belongings." The conflict in Darfur, between the Sudanese military and militias said to be allied to the government, and rebels fighting to end alleged marginalisation and discrimination of Darfur residents by the state, erupted early last year. The militias, locally known as Janjawid, have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians. Some 1.45 million people have been displaced and another 200,000 fled across the border into Chad. Meanwhile, about 20,000 children were demobilised from the ranks of southern Sudanese rebel forces between 2001 – 2003 but thousands more were still fighting, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said. UNICEF, in a statement on Thursday, said many of the children who were still active combatants were thought to be southerners who had been involved with government or allied forces in the 21-year civil war between Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army.