The UN Special Mission in Sudan called for a radical treatment of all causes of violence across the country.
In the latest wave of violence in the troubled Darfur region; On Friday and Saturday, about 50 people were killed and injured after a group equipped with heavy weapons and four-wheel drive vehicles launched a large-scale attack on a number of villages in the south of the region.
Eyewitnesses confirmed that the attackers burned a number of villages and took dozens of residents to unknown locations.
Hussein Rijal, spokesman for the Coordination of the Displaced, told Sky News Arabia that the residents of the villages that were attacked face very difficult security and humanitarian conditions in light of the continued attacks, arson and looting.
He added that the medical teams are facing great difficulties to reach the wounded, as the forces that carried out the attack closed all roads leading to those villages, some of which are about 20 kilometers from the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
The Darfur Bar Association – a human rights body – condemned the attacks; and held the local and central authorities responsible; She said that the continued assault on civilians, the burning of villages, and the summary killing is a result of the proliferation of weapons and the absence of law.
This comes amid great controversy over the peace agreement signed in October 2020 between the Sudanese government and a number of armed movements with the aim of stopping the war that broke out in 2003 and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile. However, the humanitarian and living conditions have deteriorated further in those areas over the past year. Since October 2021, acts of violence have been repeated more than 5 times in Darfur, killing more than a thousand people, including women and children, and burning entire villages.
In June 2022, areas in Blue Nile state witnessed bloody tribal fighting, which was renewed again in October, killing more than 600 people and displacing more than 200,000 to safer areas in the north of the state and other states.
In October 2022, widespread killings and burnings broke out in the Lagawa area in South Kordofan state, during which more than 60 people were killed or wounded, and about 36,000 people were forced to flee, according to the United Nations.
Two years after the signing of the peace agreement, the camps for the displaced are still witnessing a significant deterioration in security, health and education services, and living conditions. The agreement has not succeeded so far in returning the displaced to their areas of origin due to the general deterioration of the security situation and the continuation of fighting in most parts of Darfur.
Observers considered that the delay in implementing the security arrangements was one of the main reasons that led to the continuation of violence in Darfur. According to the peace agreement, mergers and demobilization operations were supposed to begin within a period not exceeding 90 days from the signing of the agreement.
The fragmentation of armed movements helped maintain security tensions. As it is estimated that the number of armed movements increased after the signing of the peace agreement to 87 armed movements, 84 of which are in the Darfur region alone; This is something that observers attributed to the focus of the peace agreement on the sharing of power and positions. This tempted many to create new armed movements or break away from the parent movements.
Kamal Ismail, head of the Sudanese National Alliance Party and a leader in the Forces for Freedom and Change – Central Council, says; For Sky News Arabia, the continuation of violence in Darfur reflects the major defect that accompanied the peace agreement.
In its statement issued on Tuesday, the United Nations called for an immediate halt to the violence; urged the Sudanese authorities to take stronger measures to protect civilians; and allow humanitarian access.
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