THE DARFUR REBELS, WAR CRIMES AND
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
“[T]here are…reports that [rebels] have engaged in indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian deaths and injuries and
destruction of private property. There are further reports of the killing of wounded and imprisoned soldiers, attacking or
launching attacks from protected buildings such as hospitals, abduction of civilians and humanitarian workers, enforced
disappearances of government officials, looting of livestock, commercial vehicles and goods, There are also allegations of
the use of child soldiers by the rebels.”
Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General [1]
The war that has been fought in Darfur over the past two years has been a humanitarian disaster. The violence is
said to have amounted to “a demographic catastrophe”. [2] Hundreds of villages have been destroyed and tens of
thousands of people have died as a direct or indirect result of the conflict. The United Nations’ Darfur
Humanitarian Profile, for the period October-December 2004, estimated that there were 1.65 million internally
displaced people in Darfur and that 2,279,266 people had been affected by the conflict. [3] The war in Darfur which
began in February 2003 was markedly different from the conflicts which had hitherto been fought in the region.
Two armed groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), launched
attacks on policemen, government garrisons and civilians in the area. [4] The first attack was on Gulu, the capital of
the Jebel Marra region of central Darfur. There were a number of other systematic and well-organised attacks,
most notably on al-Fasher and Mellit, respectively the capital and the second largest city in North Darfur. The
attack on al-Fasher was by hundreds of rebels, and there were significant civilian casualties. The rebels have
killed hundreds of policemen and attacked and destroyed 89 police stations. [5]
The need to find a peaceful solution to the horrendous war in Darfur is painfully self-evident. The peace process
that has unfolded over the past two years has, however, been a difficult one. The Government of Sudan has
repeatedly declared its commitment to a peaceful solution to the crisis. [6] Sudan has welcomed the close
involvement of both the African Union and Chad as mediators, and has also agreed and urged the deployment of
thousands of African Union peace-keeping forces. [7] The rebel movements have systematically obstructed the
peace process. In the lead-up to the various rounds of talks, for example, rebels intensified their attacks in Darfur,
attacks which often severely impeded the delivery of emergency aid to Darfur. In October 2004, for example, the
UN confirmed rebel responsibility for attacks in Darfur, quoting the UN’s Envoy to Sudan: “Mr Pronk said rebel
groups - the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - were responsible for
much of the recent violence, which is restricting humanitarian access to many areas within Darfur, a vast and
desolate region in western Sudan.” [8]
The rebel movements are bound by the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the 1997 Ottawa Convention on
anti-personal mines, as well bound customary rules of international humanitarian law, of which the core is Article
3 common to the Geneva Conventions, and the Additional Protocols of 1977, and the 1976-1977 Diplomatic
Conference provisions. Both in the course of the conflict and in their attempts to prolong the war, it has become
very apparent that both rebel movements have been party to systematic abuses of human rights amounting to war
crimes as defined within international humanitarian law. Rebel human rights abuses have followed a pattern.
They have included systematic attacks on nomadic communities and the destruction of numerous Arab villages. They have included the murder, wounding, and abduction of civilians and the rape of women. Rebels have also
carried out hundreds of armed robberies throughout Darfur, and in so doing killing many civilians. The rebels
have also murdered captured and wounded government servicemen. On 27 March 2003, for example, rebel
forces led by Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nour murdered twelve wounded soldiers in Buram hospital by burning
them alive. Darfur rebels have also murdered several aid workers, foreign and Sudanese, and abducted scores of
others. They have also attacked and looted dozens of relief convoys carrying food aid to Darfur’s displaced
communities. The rebels have also recruited and armed child soldiers. They have also been involved in the theft
of thousands of head of livestock – the very lifeblood of many of Darfur’s tribal communities. The rebels have
also used landmines. [9]
The United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur found that the rebel movements in Darfur
were suspected of perpetrating war crimes in Darfur. The Commission also pointed to responsibility under the
doctrine of joint criminal enterprise for crimes committed by others during attacks. Rebels were suspected of “having committed indiscriminate attacks on civilians as a war crime.” [10] These war crimes were said to include
the “murder of civilians, destruction of civilian objects, unlawful detention of civilians and looting”. [11]
The Commission stated that: “it would be groundless to argue (as some rebel leaders did when questioned by the
Commission) that the two groups of insurgents (SLA and JEM) were not tightly organized militarily, with the
consequence that often military engagements conducted in the field not been planned, directed or approved by
the military leadership…commanders…must be held accountable for actions of their subordinates.” The
Commission further noted that: “There is another and more specific reason why the political and military
leadership of SLA and JEM may not refuse to accept being held accountable for any crime committed by their
troops in the field…This reason resides in the signing by that leadership of the various agreements with the
Government of the Sudan. By entering into those agreements on behalf of their respective ‘movements’ the
leaders of each ‘movement’ assumed full responsibility for conduct or misconduct of their combatants. More
specifically, in the Protocol on the Establishment of Humanitarian Assistance in Darfur, of 8 April 2004, the
rebels undertook to respect the general principles of international humanitarian law, and these principles no doubt
include that of superior responsibility.” [12] It should be noted that the SLA representative to the African Union,
Abdou Abdallah Ismail has, in any instance, insisted that the SLA “has full control over its commanders”. [13]
The Commission also found that four rebel leaders were suspected of being “responsible for knowingly failing to
prevent or repress the perpetration of crimes committed by rebels.” The Commission stated that these leaders
“may thus be suspected to be responsible, under the doctrine of superior responsibility, for the crimes committed
by the rebels under their authority, namely murder of civilians, destruction of civilian objects, forced
disappearances and looting as war crimes.” [14]
The following are just a cross-section of some of the war crimes committed by the rebel movements in Darfur.
The Murder, Wounding and Abduction of Civilians
The UN information network, part of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - and active in
Sudan, publicly documented in July 2003, for example, that “SLA rebels regularly attacked and looted villages,
taking food and sometimes killing people…The attacks present a real threat to people’s food security and
livelihoods, by preventing them from planting and accessing markets to buy food.”. [15] Even the SLA has had to
admit to human rights abuses, accepting in early December 2004, for example, that it had been involved in
attacks on civilians, kidnappings and obstructing aid workers. [16] On 5 December 2004, the Sudanese government
released documents which it said showed that the rebels had killed 89 people in more than 300 armed robberies
since the April 2004 ceasefire. A Sudanese interior minister stated that the number of armed robberies in Darfur
in eight months following the ceasefire was higher than in the previous 15 months. The documents indicated that from 1 January 2003 to April 2004 there were 251 armed robberies in which 80 people had been murdered. From
April until the end of November there were 320 armed robberies during which 89 people were killed. [17]
Almost eighteen months after they first began, Human Rights Watch has now also documented that rebel attacks
on towns in early 2003 resulted in considerable loss of civilian life. Human Rights Watch researcher Julie Flint
has stated that “heavy civilian casualties” were caused during these attacks, noting for example, that the April
2003 attack on al-Fasher “resulted in the deaths of numerous civilians”. [18] In its November 2004 report, in a
section entitled “Attacks on Civilians”, Human Rights admitted that “the rebel movements have been responsible
for direct attacks on civilian objects in violation of international humanitarian law, and for causing deaths and
injuries to civilians.”
The UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur documented rebel attacks on Kulbus in West Darfur. In an attack on 4
October 2003, it states that 17 civilians were killed and 50 injured. [19] In another attack on 25 and 26 December
2003, it states that four civilians were killed. The town of Kulbus was attacked 27 times. The Commission
records a rebel attack on “members of the nomadic Rezeigat tribe” in the Kulbus area, in which the attackers
“killed forty eight persons including women and children and stole property and livestock from the market and
then destroyed it”. [20] It also recorded three separate rebel attacks in Buram, South Darfur in March 2004. [21]
A Case Study of Rebel Attacks on Civilians, including Widespread Rape: Malam, South Darfur.
In its November 2004 report, Human Rights Watch provides the outside world with a snapshot of rebel human
rights abuses. It reported, for example, on rebel attacks in and around one specific area – Malam, located on the
eastern side of the Jebel Marra, approximately one hundred kilometres north of Nyala, in South Darfur. Human
Rights Watch has cited numerous examples of the murder of civilians, the rape of women and abduction of young
children by Sudan Liberation Army rebels in and around this town, a location inhabited both by Fur and people
from the Beni Mansour tribe. SLA rebels have been attacking civilians in this area – one of many in Darfur –
since they began the war. Human Rights Watch, for example, noted that it had received a list of sixty Beni
Mansour women and girls who were said to have been raped or assaulted by rebels in attacks between 10
February and 7 July 2004 – but stated that it was not able to “verify” these claims. [22] In one attack in the area, on
21 April 2004, the rebels killed ten civilians. Six more civilians were murdered in an attack in nearby Um Dashur
in early June 2004. Human Rights Watch also reported that in mid-June 2004 rebel gunmen were said to have
raped several Beni Mansour women near Malam. Rebels attacked Malam again in October 2004, killing three
civilians, including a 12-year-old girl, and injuring several more. Human Rights Watch stated that their apparent
intention had been to loot. It also reported that it had received a list of thirty-nine people, including two children,
said to have been abducted in the Malam area between 2 August 2003 and 10 July 2004, adding that their
whereabouts remained unknown. In January 2005, the United Nations reported that between 24 and 36 civilians
had died and 26 others were wounded in fresh rebel attacks on villages in and around Malam. [23] Rebel human
rights abuses in and around Malam provide the international community with documented – albeit imperfectly –
examples of rebel abuses in one small specific area of Darfur. From all accounts it is a pattern of abuses that has
been repeated throughout Darfur – the vast majority of which have gone unrecorded by human rights
organisations or other outside observers.
A Case Study of Rebel Attacks on Civilians: Ishbara, West Darfur.
The Economist has provided observers with a further example of rebel abuses, in West Darfur. It reported that
rebels burned down 12 villages in the area of Ishbara, located some 120 miles north of Al-Geneina, in West
Darfur. They had “killed anyone who crossed their path.” Those civilians who survived now live in the Wadi
Bardi refugee camp. Another five villages were said to have been abandoned by petrified villagers. These
civilians were from the African Gimir tribe, traditional rivals of the Zaghawa tribe. The Daily Telegraph, reporting on the same attacks, pointed out that rebel “brutality at least equals that of” the Janjaweed, and that the
rebels “have received none of the international condemnation heaped upon the Janjaweed”. [24]
A Case Study of Rebel Involvement in Ethnic Cleansing
The Independent has also reported on claims that the rebels were “driving Arabs from their villages.” [25] It
provided a glimpse of the ten thousand Arab villagers packed into the Mossei refugee camp, near Nyala in South
Darfur, reporting on their claims to have “been attacked, driven from their homes, and abandoned to face pending
epidemics of cholera, malaria and hepatitis. They say their persecutors are African tribes in league with the Sudan
Liberation Army, with their own campaigns of driving out another community.” [26]
Rebel Attacks on Humanitarian Workers and Obstruction of Aid Deliveries in Darfur
Rebel attacks on humanitarian aid convoys have been particularly serious. These attacks have been throughout
the course of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, and have gravely endangered the delicately-balanced emergency
feeding programme keeping hundreds of thousands of civilians – many of them from the communities the rebels
were claiming to protect – alive in Darfur. Human Rights Watch has called on rebel groups to “Cease all attacks
on civilians and civilian property including…humanitarian aid convoys.” The pattern of rebel human rights
abuses in attacks on aid convoys and workers is a clear one. It is obvious that the rebel movement have not only
been seeking to deny humanitarian access to government-controlled areas by attacks on aid workers – attacks
which in turn result in aid agencies suspending activities in parts of Darfur – and by attacks on humanitarian aid
convoys: they have also denying the international community access to rebel-controlled areas, thereby severely
affected the very people they claim to protect. All of this in an attempt to further ratchet up international pressure
on the Sudanese government.
As early as July 2003, for example, the UN news service reported on rebel attempts to disrupt food security in the
affected areas: “SLA rebels regularly attacked and looted villages taking food and sometimes killing
people…The attacks present a real threat to people’s food security and livelihoods, by preventing them from
planting and accessing markets to buy food.” [27] It is clear that rebel forces in Darfur are directly misappropriating
food aid and equipment stolen from relief agencies. This is a point made by humanitarian aid expert, Professor
Sarah Kenyon Lischer. Interviewed in January 2005, she noted that: “Recently, the World Food Program has had
over a dozen of its trucks hijacked. And the aid that was on those trucks has been stolen. The trucks reportedly
have been repainted and used for military purposes by the rebels. And so that’s just a very obvious way that aid
can be used for war.” [28] This had happened was confirmed by the United Nations: “The United Nations said it was
also concerned about reports that Darfur-based rebel forces have stolen 13 commercial all terrain trucks leased to
WFP and loaded with food in the last two weeks. These thefts are in addition to multiple losses of commercial
and aid agency vehicles to armed groups in recent months, [the UN said]. More alarming are reports that the
rebel group that stole them may now be using some of these trucks for military purposes, it said.” [29] The UN
Sudan Envoy Jan Pronk stated: “Such misuses of humanitarian assets should cease immediately. All trucks and
other equipment taken by armed groups from humanitarian organizations should be returned without delay so that
relief operations are not hindered further.” [30]
The rebels have, from the earliest days of the insurgency, sought to escalate humanitarian access difficulties by
deliberately targeting aid workers. They murdered nine World Food Programme truck drivers, and wounded 14
others, in an attack on a relief convoy in October 2003. [31] In November 2003 the Government accused rebels in
Darfur of killing two of its relief workers and abducting three others in an attack on an aid convoy. Humanitarian
Aid Commissioner Sulaf Eddin Salih said his government is worried about the “continued” rebel attacks which
he said “threaten the humanitarian operations and result in losing human lives and worsening the humanitarian
situation”. He appealed to the international community to intervene to halt and denounce the “repeated” armed
operations on the humanitarian assistance convoys. [32]
Put quite simply, insecurity severely curtails humanitarian aid access. In the words of a UN humanitarian relief
spokesman: “You can’t give aid when there are bullets flying.” [33] In January 2004, for example, UN media
sources reported that “about 85 percent of the 900,000 war-affected people in Darfur…are inaccessible to
humanitarian aid…mainly because of insecurity.” [34] In December 2003, the UN quoted the Government as saying
“The problem is in areas controlled by the SLM. Our experience has made us hesitant to send relief to areas
under the SLM because of kidnapping and attacks on trucks.” [35] In October 2003, in the wake of the abovementioned
attacks, the United States government asked the Sudanese government for help with security and
access. [36] One month later, rebel gunmen killed two other relief workers and abducted three others. [37] Rebels have
also kidnapped other relief workers. In a further example of interference with humanitarian work, JEM gunmen
admitted abducting five aid workers working for the Swiss humanitarian group Medair. [38]
A senior UN official in Sudan stated in February 2004 that rebels have made it too dangerous to take aid into
parts of Darfur. Aid convoys were still being attacked by armed groups. The spokesman also cited the danger of
landmines. [39] The SLA attacked a humanitarian convoy, killing a traditional leader of the Zaghawa, Abdel Rahman
Mohammain, who was leading it. [40] The International Crisis Group noted continuing rebel obstruction in May 2004: “The SLA issued several statements in the first half of May to the effect that it will refuse to allow into areas it controls
any humanitarian relief that originates in government-controlled areas - where most UN and international NGOs are
based.” [41]
In early June 2004, Associated Press reported the abduction by rebels of 16 aid workers. Those kidnapped
worked for the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children UK, the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nation’s World Food Program, UNICEF, the Norwegian Refugee
Council, ECHO, the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission, and Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid
Commission. They were stopped while were conducting assessments to prepare the way for delivery of relief
assistance for displaced people in the vicinity of Al Hilief in North Darfur despite driving vehicles clearly
bearing the UN insignia. [42] The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, condemned the detention and
delayed release of the 16 aid workers as “totally unacceptable” and “contradicts solemn promises” made by the
SLA. Egeland said that “Too much time has already been lost in this race against the clock to save more than a
million lives threatened by indiscriminate violence, starvation and disease.” The UN stated that “[t]he incident
not only threatened the safety and security of humanitarian workers, but has interrupted and delayed aid to
desperately needy civilians in Darfur.” [43]
On 8 June 2004, Agence France Presse reported that rebels had seized nine trucks loaded with relief items,
medicines and tents on the road between Nyala and al-Fasher. The rebels abducted four of the drivers and beat a
fifth one. [44] Later that month, rebels attacked a humanitarian relief convoy in Darfur, stealing 57 tons of UN food
aid. Ibrahim Hamid, the minister of humanitarian affairs, said: “These types of rebel action are the most serious
threat to the humanitarian and security situation.” [45]
In the first week of July 2004, the SLA attacked 26 aid workers, working for Save the Children UK, delivering
emergency assistance in northern Darfur. They also stole six vehicles and a large amount of cash. On 13 July
2004, the British government publicly urged Sudanese rebels to return the stolen vehicles. [46]
There were a number of systematic rebel attacks on aid workers in August 2004. The African Union confirmed
that, on 22 August, SLA forces had abducted humanitarian affairs workers on their way to a meeting in the
Abgaragil area, and that on 23 August rebels had abducted medical aid workers engaged in an inoculation
campaign in Kutum. [47] At the end of August 2004, Darfur rebels abducted six aid workers in north Darfur. Three were from the World Food Programme and three from the Sudanese Red Crescent. WFP condemned the
targeting of humanitarian workers. WFP Senior Deputy Executive Director Jean-Jacques Graisse said that WFP
was “delighted that our people, as well as those working for the Sudanese Red Crescent, have been freed
unharmed. This is not, however, the first time that humanitarian workers have been targeted in Darfur. At a time
when all agencies are battling the rainy season, poor infrastructure and an unpredictable security environment to
deliver desperately needed humanitarian assistance, this kind of incident can only further worsen the plight of the
needy in Darfur. We call upon all armed groups in the region to stop targeting those involved in humanitarian
work and allow them to do their duty without fear of intimidation. Any continuation or escalation of incidents
such as the one just resolved is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the relief operation.” [48] On 31 August
2004, JEM gunmen detained 22 Sudanese health workers near Nyala in south Darfur. [49] In late August, the United
Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, stated that he was encouraged by Sudan’s
actions to improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur. [50]
In October 2004, the Sudanese government’s chief negotiator at Abuja, Dr Magzoub al-Khalifa, warned that the
rebels were seeking to worsen affairs in Darfur: “They need to stimulate all these governments and all these
organizations on their side by making the situation worse on the ground.” [51] October also saw rebel threats to kill
aid workers. [52] A SLA landmine killed two Save the Children Fund workers in Darfur. Two other Save the
Children workers, one British and one Sudanese, were killed in October by a landmine laid by SLA rebels. [53] The
United Nations special envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk unambiguously confirmed rebel involvement in these deaths:
“It was the rebels who are responsible for attacking relief workers and convoys, they are responsible
for…landmines which killed two relief workers.” [54]
That same month, the United Nations reported that “UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York that the
operations of humanitarian agencies in North Darfur State have become limited because some roads remain
closed to them. Other areas have become dangerous for transporting aid supplies. Last Saturday, forces from the
rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) hijacked seven commercial trucks on a road about 120 kilometres east of the
state capital El Fasher.” [55] A spokeswoman for the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS) stated that “[t]he
repeated ceasefire violations of the past month have had a very serious impact on the UN’s ability to deliver
humanitarian assistance to affected populations.” [56]
In mid-November 2004, the United Nations said that nearly 200,000 needy people, especially in the mountainous
Jebel Marra area in central Darfur and the northern part of North Darfur, had been cut off from relief aid because
of escalating violence. The German press agency reported: “The U.N. said tension in the region had risen as rebel
groups, in particular the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), had increased their operations in an apparent attempt to
claim more territory.” The Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said an estimated
150,000 people have been driven from their homes due to the escalating violence during the past month. The UN
also reported several attacks on buses and aid convoys around Darfur. Travellers had been abducted and even
killed and vehicles looted by the attackers. [57] By the end of November, The New York Times was reporting that
the rebels had been “sharply ratcheting up attacks” which in turn was preventing relief work. [58]
In November 2004 the rebels were accused of attacking a joint WHO/Ministry of Health medical team. One
doctor was killed and four other health workers were injured. The team was also robbed. [59] In the same month
both the Dublin-based GOAL aid agency and the Spanish branch of Médecins Sans Frontières were forced to
withdraw their staff from the Jebel Marra area in central Darfur after “repeated” rebel acts of aggression targeting
the humanitarian personnel and the relief supplies intended for people in need. [60] Both MSF and GOAL
complained that rebels had attacked their vehicles. [61] On 27 November 2004, The New York Times revealed the
degree of rebel obstruction of aid delivery and aid workers: “On the ground, many aid workers, too fearful of giving their names for fear of jeopardizing their work, say that rebel officials have made unreasonable demands
on aid groups operating in their territory, at one point insisting on a certain number of expatriates to accompany
Sudanese staff, whom rebels distrust as potential government spies. Aid workers have also been detained in rebel
territory in recent months.” [62]
Amnesty International noted a similar pattern of rebel activity: “over the past two months, a number of World
Food Program commercial trucks have been attacked in South Darfur.” [63] It also noted that: “After Sudan
Liberation Army forces reportedly hijacked seven commercial trucks east of al-Fasher on 23 October, the road
between al-Fasher and Um Kedada in North Darfur was closed and has only just been re-opened. Because of
heavy fighting in the area, the road between al-Fasher and Kutum remains a no-go zone.”
In early December 2004, The Christian Science Monitor confirmed the results of rebel action: “[R]ecently
they’ve stepped up attacks and have even looted international aid convoys. The violence adds to the instability –
and to aid groups’ growing inability to help the displaced millions.” [64] Two Save the Children aid workers,
members of a mobile medical clinic, were murdered by rebels on 12 December 2004. They were deliberately shot
dead in an attack on an aid convoy. The director of Save the Children’s international operations said: “We
deplore this brutal killing of humanitarian workers in Darfur.” The charity said its vehicles were clearly marked
as belonging to Save the Children. [65] The African Union and United Nations confirmed the SLA’s responsibility
for the deaths of the aid workers. In addition to the murdered aid workers, one other worker was injured and three
are missing. African Union officer Nigerian Major-General Festus Okonkwo stated: “SLA was involved in the
attack as two Land Rovers belonging to Save the Children (UK) were recovered from [the] SLA camp in
Jurof.” [66] Rebel involvement in the murders was established by the UN. [67] In mid-December the United Nations
suspended aid operations in South Darfur in December in the wake of these murders. [68] The Guardian reported
that an aid worker was shot on the same road in the summer but survived. The British international development
minister, Hilary Benn, noted rebel activities: “Recent rebel attacks on Tawila and on humanitarian convoys in
Darfur, along with the murder of two Save the Children UK staff are particularly horrific.” [69]
The UN Envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said of the rebel attacks and interference with aid deliveries: “They have to
stop. Otherwise they are blocking access to the very people they say they are protecting.” [70] In December 2004,
Sudan’s Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Mohamed Yusif Abdallah, made the obvious point that “[w]here the
rebels create insecurity, it is not the government denying access.” [71] The United Nations Darfur Humanitarian
Profile released in December 2004 has stated, for example, that: “Despite prevailing insecurity in the three
Darfur States, 79% of Darfur conflict affected population is currently accessible to UN humanitarian workers.
Most of the underserved areas remain rebel-held, many of which have not been accessible to UN agencies
because of a series of security incidents and a delay in obtaining SLA agreement and understanding of
humanitarian rules and principles laid out in agreements.” [72] [Emphasis added] The rebels are endangering the
lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians already malnourished and badly affected by the conflict in Darfur.
On 15 December 2004, the United Nations reported further rebel attacks on food aid convoys: “WFP reports that
food distribution has been seriously disrupted by ongoing insecurity. On 18 December 2004, the SLA detained a
total of 13 trucks. Five of them were released on the same day but the rest were kept until 21 Dec…the disruption
affected food distribution in Marla and Sania Fundu. Food assistance has also been halted in Labado, Al Juruf,
Muhujarija, Khor Abechi, Manawashi, Mershing, Rokero and Gildo Labado.” [73] On 22 December 2004, The
New York Times has also reported that: “The chaotic situation in Darfur has hampered the work of agencies
trying to reach the estimated 2.3 million people who rely on aid to survive. Aid organizations in the region say
rebels have been attacking convoys carrying aid and goods along the road between Nyala and El Fasher, where
two Save the Children UK workers were killed recently.” [74] Ongoing rebel attacks, particularly that on the market town of Ghubaysh on 27 December, had disastrous effects on the delivery of food aid to affected communities.
The United Nations noted:
The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended food convoys to the Darfur States following a large
scale attack yesterday by rebel forces on the market town of Ghubaysh…WFP has halted three convoys
of seventy trucks carrying more than 1,300 MT of WFP food aid destined for El Fasher and
Nyala…this recent insecurity has cut off assistance to some 260,000 people who will miss their
December rations in the South Darfur as well as eastern parts of West Darfur…Notably, it is the second
attack by the SLA since 19 December when the Government of Sudan agreed to an immediate
cessation of hostilities. This latest insecurity has serious consequences for the UN and NGOs
operations in Darfur, as it effectively blocks overland access from central Sudan to the Darfur region.
This has a particular impact on WFP’s provision of life-saving food aid, as it must rely heavily on road
deliveries to support its Darfur humanitarian operation. The United Nations is also concerned about
reports that Darfur-based rebel movement forces have stolen in the last two weeks thirteen commercial
all terrain trucks leased to WFP, loaded with urgently required WFP food commodities for the affected
people of Darfur dedicated to the transportation of food aid to Darfur…The latest thefts are in addition
to multiple losses of commercial and aid agency vehicles to armed groups in recent months. More
alarming are reports that the rebel groups that stole them may now [be] using some of these trucks for
military purposes. [75]
A World Food Programme spokeswoman said: “The attacks followed a week of insecurity in Darfur and this has
caused difficulties, in terms of providing assistance. It will delay urgently required food for 260,000 people in
South Darfur and the eastern parts of West Darfur.” [76] UNAMIS noted that the rebel attack on Ghubaysh was “the
second carried out by the rebels since 19 December, when the Sudanese government agreed to an immediate
cessation of hostilities”. The UN Envoy to Sudan concluded: “The problems of Darfur cannot be solved through
military means. The parties to the conflict have to live up to their commitments, including their responsibility to
ensure the safety and wellbeing of their own people and their unhindered access to humanitarian assistance.” [77]
The rebels’ murder of aid workers has had the desired effect – the intensification of the humanitarian crisis in
Darfur with the ultimate aim of forcing some sort of military intervention. It has gone hand-in-hand with the
SLA’s deliberate breaking of ceasefire agreements with attacks in northern Darfur. This precipitated the current
humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Associated Press reported that: “The United Nations has condemned a rebel attack
in Darfur province, saying it violates a cease-fire agreement and jeopardises the lives of tens of thousands of
people who will not receive aid because of the fighting.” [78] The international community has roundly condemned
these rebel actions. [79] These systematic rebel attacks have placed hundreds of thousands of war-affected
communities in danger of starvation. The Director of Save the Children UK, Mike Aaronson, stated that: “We
are devastated that we are unable to continue to offer health care, nutritional support, child protection and
education to the approximately 250,000 children and family members served by our current programs. However,
we just cannot continue to expose our staff to the unacceptable risks they face as they go about their humanitarian
duties in Darfur.” [80]
Erwin Van Der Borght, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme, has also noted the effect
of rebel attacks: “Attacks knowingly and intentionally directed against personnel involved in humanitarian
assistance in armed conflict may constitute war crimes. Insecurity within Darfur hinders movement to whole
districts, so that food, medicine and other non-food items can not be brought in. This increases enormously the
sufferings of an already vulnerable population.” Amnesty International noted that “After such attacks, the district
or road is likely to be declared a no-go area for international humanitarian staff for several days” and pointed out
that it stopped aid reaching “thousands” of displaced people. [81]
On 31 December 2004, The Daily Telegraph reported on SLA attacks in December had “forced the United
Nations to suspend supply convoys into Darfur”: “The SLA attacks seemed to be designed to isolate Darfur. The rebels struck police stations in the town of Ghibaish and al-Majrour in the neighbouring province of West
Kordofan, killing 99 people. The ensuing battle closed Darfur’s main communication artery.” [82]
In his January 2005 report on Darfur, the United Nations Secretary-General reported on what he termed a “new
trend” in the pattern of attacks on, and harassment of, international aid workers: “While previous incidents have
only been aimed at looting supplies and goods, December has seen acts of murder and vicious assaults on staff,
forcing some agencies to leave Darfur.” [83]
Rebel Use of Child Soldiers
Human Rights Watch and others have clearly documented that both the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice
and Equality Movement use child soldiers. It has correctly pointed out that “it is unlawful…to deploy children as
combatants, whether or not they were forcibly recruited or joined on their own accord.” [84] The Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court classifies the use of child soldiers as a war crime. In July 2004, for example,
rebel militias were accused of kidnapping 32 children during attacks on several villages. [85] The Independent
newspaper has reported the presence of hundreds of child soldiers, some as young as ten, with the rebels. [86]
Human Rights researchers in North Darfur in July and August 2004 observed and photographed SLA child
soldiers, some as young as twelve. [87] In a different report a child eyewitness, Mubarak, abducted from Kudum in
southern Darfur, confirmed the systematic use of child soldiers. A former SLA child combatant, he stated that
following an attack on his school, rebels had abducted “several dozen frightened boys…and marched them off
into the countryside. The heavily armed men asked the boys if any of them wanted to go. Eight of them raised
their hands and…the rebels told them they could run away. Mubarak said he still remembered the loud bangs
when the men shot two of the escaping boys. The remaining boys became rebels. ‘I had to join them,’ Mubarak
said. ‘I was afraid I would be killed, too.’” [88] The African Union has also confirmed that the Sudan Liberation
Army is arming and using child soldiers. [89] The SLA is obviously aware that it is illegal to use child soldiers.
Journalists who reported seeing fighters who “seem to be no more than schoolboys” who, when asked their age,
reply with “the stock answer”: “I have just become 18, sir. I am not a child soldier.” [90] The rebel’s use of child
soldiers clearly constitutes a war crime as defined in Article 8 (2) (e) (vii) of the ICC Statute, Article 4 (c) of the
Special Court for Sierra Leone, article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts.
Rebel Armed Robberies and Attacks on Road Transport
Rebel involvement in armed robberies of civilians and civilian premises is clear. These have included any
number of civilian premises, including banks and other businesses. An example of a typical attack was that on
Yassin, in South Darfur, in January 2004. In this attack rebels looted offices, commercial premises and the zakat
(charity) office. In early December 2004, the Sudanese government released documents indicating that the rebels
had been involved in 571 armed robberies since early 2003 in the course of which they had killed 169 people. [91]
Rebels were said to have attacked over 200 trucks. [92] Human Rights Watch also reported rebel attacks on trucks
and the theft of “commercial goods from trucks and vehicles in Darfur”. It also noted that: “These attacks on
civilian property are a violation of international humanitarian law.” [93] In November 2004, African Union ceasefire
monitors confirmed that the SLA had attacked convoys of Nigerian pilgrims on four separate occasions in Darfur.
In one attack on three civilian trucks, the rebels killed seven people. Eight others were injured. [94] These
systematic attacks prompted an unprecedented intervention by Amnesty International in early November 2004
which directly criticised rebel attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys. It noted that in one case “Eighteen passengers from nomad groups were taken off a bus between Niyertiti and Thur in South Darfur state by soldiers
of the Sudan Liberation Army…Amnesty International has grave concerns about their fate. Thirteen of them are
said to have been killed.” [95]
Rebel Use of Civilian “Human Shields”
That the rebel movements have wittingly or unwittingly drawn air attacks upon the civilian population in Darfur
is a matter of record. In November 2004, Reuters reported government claims that “rebels…have drawn army fire
and aerial bombardment on to Darfur villages by using them as cover and as bases for military operations.” A
senior government security chief said that rebels would often have camps next to villages, which were near water
sources, and on many occasions attacked the army from within the villages.” [96] Predictable or not, the
government’s claims appear to have been at least partly borne out when SLA rebels subsequently admitted as
much when they revealed that the Sudanese air force had killed 25 fighters in a raid on a village in north Darfur.
The village was 25 miles south of al-Fasher. [97] A British television news item also reported on the rebel presence
within villages, in this instance Thabit: “This village is full of rebel soldiers from the Sudan Liberation Army.
Eight were wounded in the bombing of Thabit. What happened here was an act of war. But it was an act of war
provoked by the rebels to make the government look bad ahead of this week’s peace talks.” [98] Amnesty
International’s Benedicte Goderiaux has also pointed out rebel complicity: “Of course it’s the government’s duty
to distinguish the SLA from civilians, but the SLA doesn’t help in making that distinction.” [99] In a report to the
United Nations human rights commission, UN officials noted that: “There are some claims that [the rebels]
operate from or near civilian areas and rely on towns and villages composed of certain ethnicities for support and
supplies. This has endangered civilians in many areas and appears to feed into certain groups being considered as
hostile to the Government.” [100]
It has also been claimed, and subsequently confirmed, that rebels have been using displaced persons camps from
which to stage attacks on relief convoys and government officials, actions which clearly endanger civilians by
provoking a possible military response by government forces. In October 2004, for example, the government
stated that an attack on a relief convoy 20 kilometres southwest of al-Fasher had been staged from the Tawila
displaced camp. [101] Security forces had also discovered an arms cache near the Zam Zam displaced camp near al-
Fasher. In late November 2004, the UN World Food Programme reported that, on 21 November 2004, rebels
attacked a police station on the edge of the Kalma IDP camp. This resulted in the death of several policemen.
The WFP confirmed that “ominously, the attack appeared to have been launched from inside Kalma camp”. [102]
The Sudanese government reported further examples of rebel use of refugee camps, claiming in December 2004
that rebels were using a presence in at least one refugee camp to target and attack policemen. [103]
Rebel Theft and Looting
The rebels have been engaged in systematic theft of livestock throughout Darfur. Human Rights Watch has
underlined the seriousness of these thefts: “Given the importance of livestock as the primary family asset, looting
of cattle and camels can render the owners destitute. This is particularly true for nomads who depend almost
entirely on livestock for their income.” [104] Human Rights Watch has stated that it has received reports of SLA
“attacks on convoys of camels that were being taken across traditional trade routes in North Darfur”. These
attacks had involved significant numbers of livestock. Human Rights Watch has provided the outside world with
a few examples of these attacks. One nomadic leader in South Darfur had reported the theft from the Ma’aliyah
tribe of more than 2,500 camels. In another documented attack, in May 2004, SLA gunmen in Land cruisers
attacked a camel drive north of Atrum, in North Darfur. They stole 1,100 camels and abducted 38 civilians –
whose whereabouts remain unknown. Rebels were said to have stolen more than 4,000 camels in the course of
2003 in attacks on the nomadic Aulad Zeid tribe in North Darfur. These attacks had involved the use of
automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns. The rebels had arrived in Land cruisers and trucks.
Human Rights Watch mentioned that “many of the herders were killed defending their animals”. [105] Human Rights
Watch has called on rebel groups to “Cease all attacks on civilians and civilian property including livestock.”
The three incidents Human Rights Watch reported are probably the tip of the iceberg with regard to the scale of
livestock theft. Given the visceral seriousness with which blood vendettas and livestock theft are taken, there is
no doubt that attacks such as these have led to considerable inter-tribal tit-tot-tat raids and violence to recover
livestock and avenge murdered tribesmen. Nomadic tribes would have raided the communities and villages from
which the SLA men would have been drawn, as well as the villages in which they were harbouring. While, in
passing, documenting what may well have been the cause of a number of reprisal attacks by nomadic tribes on
tribes seen as complicit in livestock theft, this has not in any way been reflected in Human Rights Watch accounts
of attacks on “African” villages. Human Rights Watch attributes all such attacks as government inspired. This is
one more example of a critical failure in analysis by human rights organisations.
That the rebel movements in Darfur have been party to war crimes and crimes against humanity is clear. It is also
the case that the rebel movements continue to prolong the war and the suffering that comes with it. It is time that
the international community brings all the pressure at its disposal to bear upon both rebel leadership and
combatants to negotiate a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Holding them accountable for the war crimes they
have committed is a first step.
Footnotes
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