First Person: 'We had to avoid stepping on the bodies in the streets' in Darfur.(Darfur, Sudan)
| Published date | 28 March 2024 |
M2 PRESSWIRE-March 28, 2024-: First Person: 'We had to avoid stepping on the bodies in the streets' in Darfur
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RDATE:27032024
A former UN staff member who worked for a decade in Sudan's Darfur region for the African Union-United Nations mission, UNAMID, has told UN News how she had to "avoid stepping on the bodies in the streets" as she fled for her life to neighbouring Chad.
Sudan, and Darfur in particular, are facing a humanitarian and security crisis after a war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), although ethnic conflicts in Darfur date back more than two decades.
Fatima*, a resident of the city of El Geneina in West Darfur state, where thousands of people have been reportedly killed, escaped with her family across the border as rival militias battled for control of her city.
"We were trapped inside our house for more than 57 days while militias systematically targeted and killed people based on their ethnicity. They did not spare women, children or elders.
Thousands of people have been displaced by over 20 years of conflict in Darfur and many move regularly between camps and El Geneina, especially at the beginning of the year or during Ramadan when killings, displacement and destruction occur.
Life is disrupted during this time, and markets, schools and government institutions are closed. Then, when the attacks stop, people try to resume their normal lives. When the last war broke out last April, we thought it would be the same, but, unfortunately, it was different.
I saw armed men, some of whom were foreigners, who surrounded the city from four sides. As a journalist, I went to an elevated area to take photographs and the neighbours were all watching through their windows. The militiamen were shooting and shouting about doomsday, saying they would bring destruction and death to Earth.
We were trapped inside houses and had to hide under beds; stray ammunition was everywhere, and I could hear people screaming in the streets and exchanging fire.
The war lasted for 57 days in the southern part of El Geneina, and whole neighborhoods were wiped out. The militiamen worked in a systematic way, going from house to house killing people. Snipers were also hiding on the rooftops and were targeting everyone they saw. There was death in a way I can't describe.
There were two teams, one killing, one looting
The militiamen worked in two teams, one focused on killing people and the other...
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