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UNAMID deplores recent clashes between SLA-Abdul Wahid Al-Nur’s factions and calls for a stop to the fighting

Khartoum- 24 June 2020-  For the past few days, the people of Darfur have been subjected to a great deal of suffering and unwarranted displacement due to  renewed eruption of fighting between two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army, Abdul Wahid Al-Nur Wing (SLA-AW) which resulted in killings, rape and the displacement of thousands of people from their villages and hamlets.

UNAMID is concerned that the people who had carried arms to presumably fight for the cause and grievances of Darfuri people are now the very ones who are inflecting this untold suffering on them!

Since the fighting between the two factions broke out on 11 June in Wegi village, 10 km north-east of UNAMID’s Golo temporary operating base, Central Darfur, it is reported that thousands of people have been displaced  from Wegi, Ila, Fara, Katiro and Daya villages. Both sides reportedly suffered an unknown number of casualties.

On 12 June, a UNAMID team conducted a verification mission to Wegi village and confirmed the incident. Witnesses also informed UNAMID that on 12 June, elements from one rival faction allegedly raped a woman and her four daughters in Tairo village during the fighting.

UNAMID’s Joint special representative (JSR) Jeremiah Mamabolo deeply regrets that these clashes  are happening at a time when the Transitional Government, the armed movements, the political parties and all Sudanese are engaged in negotiations in Juba; in order to bring such unjustified suffering to an end.

“It is a pity that those who had carried arms in order to defend the hopes and aspiration of the people of Darfur have become the very cause of their suffering” he said.

“I urge the commanders of these two factions to heed the appeal of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres’, to all warring parties ‘to lay down arms, silence guns and unite in the collective effort to create a more peaceful world,’” Mr. Mamabolo quoted.

“I therefore call upon the two warring factions to immediately stop fighting and resort to peaceful means in resolving their differences. Violence can only aggravate animosity and it comes at a great cost to women, children and other innocent civilians. Suffice it to say that 80 per cent of those displaced by this wave of fighting are women and children,” he concluded.