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‘As the night descended, they came and killed’: Sudan’s other war

‘As the night descended, they came and killed’: Sudan’s other war

While the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, has been the main theatre of battle so far, the fighting has also spread in cities across the conflict-weary Darfur region.

There, the resurgence of violence quickly took an intercommunal dimension, pitting armed Arab men against fighters from the Masalit ethnic group in confrontations that witnesses and survivors described as ferocious.

Looking for him

While a communications blackout has largely kept cities across Darfur cut off, Al Jazeera spoke to at least a dozen refugees at Borota whose collective account helps shed light on the events of the past month.

The hastily erected settlement just 5km (3 miles) from the border is now home to about 25,000 people, the vast majority of them women and children.

They added that most civilian men stayed behind to try to protect their land or fight.

But as fighting drags on, smaller waves of refugees keep trickling into Borota from Konga Haraza, each bringing the latest news on relatives back home.

Yet most refugees who spoke to Al Jazeera said they had seen men wearing RSF uniforms joining the fight alongside Arab armed groups.

Al Jazeera reached out to Sudan’s army spokesperson for comment on accusations that its forces have left civilians to defend themselves.

Workers from both Doctors Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee said the duration and the brutality of the fighting has prompted refugees to make the “rare” request to relocate permanently across the border in Chad.

“We are not going back there.

Idriss Mahmat Ali Abdallah Nassouri, head of the Chadian authority in charge of refugees, told Al Jazeera that the search is ongoing.

Aid groups have already begun moving refugees away from the border, aiming to complete the relocation to existing camps before the start of the rainy season at the end of June.

By then, the wadis, or dried-out riverbeds, will fill with water, making it impossible for aid workers to reach refugees sheltering close to the frontier.

Many concerns, few solutions

Questions loom, however, about what to do if the conflict persists and thousands more people seek to cross the border, particularly from el-Geneina, which has seen some of the fiercest fighting so far.

Refugees there told Al Jazeera that at least three people were shot dead in front of their eyes as they were trying to reach Koufroun.

And then there is the issue of providing enough food and water to the refugees, who fled their homes with almost nothing – maybe a pot and a few blankets.

Some of them survive on the limited food they brought with them after fleeing their homes.

Original Story on: 3News
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