Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher capital of N. Darfur State

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix) Sudan's Early Warning Flash Alerts provides immediate updates on incidents and sudden displacement in Sudan. Here's one on North Darfur. 

To give some context, I've listed five reports including one of Hemeti, leader of Janjaweed RSF, aiming to turn Zurrug, North Darfur into a dream city. 

Hemeti is supported and equipped by several foreign countries. He spent much of the last 20 years terrorising and killing Sudanese people in Darfur, Sudan to force them off their land and make them too scared to return.

If memory serves, the Janjaweed were incentivised by Sudan's President Bashir who promised the militia leaders they could keep the land and what they looted for stopping Darfur rebels advancing and reaching Khartoum.

Sheikh Musa Hilal controls huge swathes of Sudan and protects millions of Sudanese, ruling with benevolence. He's an old-style warrior who, like Mr Bashir, does not believe in taking hand-outs as it is not part of their culture.

Reportedly, Hemeti has grand plans for Sudan's remote western province. He feels at home in Darfur. He didn't fit in with the elites in Khartoum. Fighting and killing to take and get what he wants is what he knows best.

Hemeti is semi-illiterate. I saw footage of Messrs Burhan and Hemeti sitting next to each other at a meeting. While Hemeti lifted pages of a document, Gen Burhan's lengthy smiley sideways glance at Hemeti's hand was telling.

Surely, Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur knows all about Hemeti's grand plans for North Darfur. Sheikh Hilal holds a lot of sway in North Darfur and beyond. Read more in the related reports posted here below.

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Flash alert from DTM

Dated Sunday, 18 February 2024 - here is a copy in full:

DTM Sudan Flash Alert: Conflict in Al Fasher (Al Fasher Town), North Darfur - Update Fourteen

On 16 February 2024, clashes renewed between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Al Fasher Town of Al Fasher locality, North Darfur. Reportedly, SAF conducted airstrikes targeting RSF positions across northern and eastern neighborhoods of Al Fasher Town. 

Field teams reported that the event led to widespread displacement. Affected households sought refuge in southern neighborhoods within Al Fasher Town. Estimates on the number of displaced individuals are yet to be confirmed. The situation remains tense and unpredictable. 

DTM is monitoring the situation closely and will provide further information on displacement and population mobility across Sudan, on a weekly basis, via its Weekly Displacement Snapshot.
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POSTCRIPT from Sudan Watch Editor

Just spent an hour down a rabbit hole of links and reading a dearth of word salads in an effort to find out who is behind DTM and how it is funded. I may be wrong, it appears that DTM and IOM are funded by the United Nations. 

Curiously, DTM website translates for English, Spanish, French but not Arabic, Swahili, Russian, Chinese or other languages. Why Spanish? I don't know. Here’s what I found and put in a nutshell:

IOM's (International Organisation for Migration) Global Data Institute (GDI), established in 2022, works to enhance the availability and use of data to achieve stronger governance outcomes and positive impacts for migrants and societies in line with IOM's Migration Data Strategy.  DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix) is one of the founding pillars of the GDI, alongside the Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC). 

The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) https://dtm.iom.int gathers, analyses and disseminates information on the mobility, vulnerabilities, and needs of displaced and mobile populations.

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Related

Sudan Watch - February 16, 2024

Situation Update Feb 2024: 10 months into conflict between SAF & RSF, war in Sudan is taking a new turn

"The mobilisation of rebel groups and ethnic militias in North Darfur forced the RSF to avoid a direct confrontation. In Kordofan, a sustained collaboration between the SAF and al-Hilu may push the RSF out of Dilling and other areas where the al-Hilu faction of the SPLM-N holds sway. However, clashes between these collaborators elsewhere in South Kordofan add to the uncertainty of the situation." 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/situation-update-feb-2024-10-months.html

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Sudan Watch - February 14, 2024

Darfur tribal leaders agree with Sudanese Sheikh Musa Hilal to lead initiative to stop war in Sudan

A civil delegation of tribal leaders in Darfur states announced that it has agreed with the head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, Sheikh Musa Hilal, to lead a national initiative to stop the war between the army and the Rapid Support.  

The delegation, which included the principals of the tribes of Tarjum, Fallata and Rizeigat and notables of a number of tribes in the states of South, East, Central and West Darfur, visited Sheikh Musa Hilal in the suburb of Mistriha in North Darfur state, and the delegation spent about a week during which he held several meetings with notables of the region.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/darfur-tribal-leaders-agree-with.html

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Sudan Watch - October 06, 2023

Sudan: Chief of Arab Rizeigat Mahameed clan to mediate between warring tribes in South Darfur

“Sheikh Musa Hilal will lead the initiative as head of the council and native administration* leader, along with other native administration notables and community figures from Darfur and some other states of Sudan”. A Revolutionary Awakening Council spokesperson said that “the root causes of the clashes need to be defined and addressed, to stop them forever”.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-chief-of-arab-rizeigat-mahameed.html

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Sudan Watch - October 05, 2023

Sudan: RSF to turn Zurrug, N Darfur into a dream city

THE ruthless leader of Sudan's Arab militia has grand plans for the remote western province. But the transformation of Zurrug risks more unrest. Read more in this report from the archives of Sudan Watch, copied here in full.

Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war

Report from the The Observer - www.theguardian.com

Observer dispatch Darfur

By KLAAS VAN DIJKEN

Dated Saturday 29 February 2020, 17.05 GMT

Photo: Children at the school in Zurrug sing anti-racism songs that praise the Rapid Support Forces. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-rsf-to-turn-zurrug-n-darfur-into.html

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Sudan Watch - December 21, 2023

Understanding the Sudanese Civil War. Muslim Brotherhood is to blame. Janjaweed's home is Darfur

"The first thing [Sudanese] Pastor Kuku says when I ask him about the situation [in Sudan] is that the Muslim Brotherhood is to blame. “As far as they are concerned, they must be in control,” he says. “No one is allowed to govern the country while they are around — the country will be ruined, or they rule it… They feel that anyone else who might rule are infidels.” 

The Brotherhood is an Islamic organization active in many countries. It supported the old dictator al-Bashir, and now supports his successor al-Burhan. The trouble is, Kuku says, the Brotherhood does not feel any sense of patriotism or belonging to Sudan. Their loyalty is to the Brotherhood. If they can rule Sudan, good — if not, let it be destroyed. If Sudan is ruined, they can move on. That’s their perspective.

The Janjaweed, which is currently occupying the capital Khartoum, isn’t any better. The Janjaweed just want to loot and pillage, in Kuku’s view. They don’t feel that they will get to keep Khartoum, so they want to destroy it out of envy and spite". Read more.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/12/understanding-sudanese-civil-war-muslim.html

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UPDATE Wed 21 Feb 2024: changed title of this post from "Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher Town, North Darfur" to "Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher capital of North Darfur State"

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Darfur tribal leaders agree with Sudanese Sheikh Musa Hilal to lead initiative to stop war in Sudan

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: As soon as I saw this report it jumped out of my screen. Over the last year I've been on the lookout for news of Sheikh Musa Hilal because he has the skills and experience to stop war in Sudan.

In the Janjaweed, Hemeti a 3rd grade school dropout and camel herder humiliated Hilal by getting him and sons handcuffed and jailed. Hemeti is trembling in his flip-flops knowing Sheikh Hilal of North Darfur is back.

Reading between the lines of the report, Sheikh Hilal has not been on the side of Hemeti. Sheikh Hilal has attracted Darfur tribal leaders to lead a national initiative to stop war in Sudan. Now there is hope for Sudan.

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Report from Radio Dabanga Arabic website

Dated Wednesday, 14 Feb 2024, 17:20 - full copy, translated from Arabic:

Darfur tribal leaders agree with Musa Hilal to lead initiative to stop war in Sudan

Musa Hilal (Archive)

(Nyala) - A civil delegation of tribal leaders in Darfur states announced that it has agreed with the head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, Sheikh Musa Hilal, to lead a national initiative to stop the war between the army and the Rapid Support.

The delegation, which included the principals of the tribes of Tarjum, Fallata and Rizeigat and notables of a number of tribes in the states of South, East, Central and West Darfur, visited Sheikh Musa Hilal in the suburb of Mistriha in North Darfur state, and the delegation spent about a week during which he held several meetings with notables of the region.

The head of the committee, Mohamed Yaqoub, told Radio Dabanga that the visit to Damra Sheikh Musa was for the purpose of searching for ways to bring peace to Sudan, and pointed out that it was agreed to form a mechanism headed by Musa Hilal to meet with all the parties to the war and tribal leaders in Sudan, and pointed out that what is happening now of alerts is a danger to the country and must be stopped.

For his part, a member of the delegation, the director of the Fallata tribe, Mohammed Al-Fateh Al-Sammani, told Dabanga Radio that the visit was for the purpose of coordination and reflection on the crisis in the country and the search for visions to get the country out of this predicament, and pointed out that a committee led by Sheikh Musa Hilal was formed to conduct internal reconciliations between the tribes of Darfur as well as communicate with the parties to the conflict to lead the project to stop the war in Sudan. Al-Samani stated that the native administration in the Darfur region united around the project to stop the war in Sudan, and appealed to the parties to the  War to support this mechanism under the leadership of Sheikh Musa Hilal in order to put an end to this war and reach internal peace.

Radio Dabanga contacted the spokesman for the Revolutionary Awakening Council to comment on the agreement on the leadership of the head of the council for the national initiative to stop the war between the army and the Rapid Support, but said that the council will discuss this matter at its meeting on Thursday and then make statements about it.

View original: https://www.dabangasudan.org/ar/all-news/article/زعماء-قبائل-بدارفور-يتفقون-مع-موسى-هلا

Related

Sudan Watch - October 06, 2023

Sudan: Chief of Arab Rizeigat Mahameed clan to mediate between warring tribes in South Darfur

“Sheikh Musa Hilal will lead the initiative as head of the council and native administration* leader, along with other native administration notables and community figures from Darfur and some other states of Sudan”. A Revolutionary Awakening Council spokesperson said that “the root causes of the clashes need to be defined and addressed, to stop them forever”.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-chief-of-arab-rizeigat-mahameed.html

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Sudan Watch - August 11, 2023

Sudanese Warlord Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur: Lynchpin of Arab Janjaweed Militia Recruitment

Sheikh Hilal is a respected Arab tribal leader and old time warrior who rules over large swathes of Sudan using benevolence. He commands a huge loyal following. If news of his return to the battlefield is true, and I hope it is, Hemeti (if he's alive) will have sleepless nights and tremble in his flip-flops at the thought of Hilal seeking revenge while fighting onside with SAF. 

If the news is true, in my view, it is a big game changer. Can't wait to find out more and what kind of deal SAF made with Warlord Hilal to induce him to side with SAF like he did when Sudan was led by President Bashir.

Musa Hilal is featured in the first blog post here at Sudan Watch. In the archives there were many great photos of him in full Arab regalia riding magnificent championship quality horses. Sadly, the photos were among 3,000+ Flickr deleted overnight, without warning, from this site's paid Flickr account. I helplessly watched in horror as each photo and thousands of hours of my work evaporated. Someone wanted them gone. 

Here is the first photo of Hilal published online. It is from the BBC captioned "The rebels started the war - Musa Hilal". The report dated 14 Nov 2004 entitled "Janjweed 'leader' denies genocide" is still online.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/08/sudanese-warlord-sheikh-musa-hilal-of.html . . .

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Scroll down to see a copy of an article from and by Radio Dabanga.org

Dated 27 November 2017 - MISTERIYA / KHARTOUM

Musa Hilal, Revolutionary Awakening Council leadership arrested in Darfur

Musa Hilal, former janjaweed leader and chairman of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, as well as his sons, brothers, entourage, and senior members of the Council’s leadership, were arrested on Sunday and arrived today in Khartoum. … The official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reports that the Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti), has affirmed that Hilal was arrested on Sunday at Misteriya area, North Darfur. Gen. Hemeti, says that Musa Hilal was “involved in a plot against Sudan which has external dimensions”.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/08/sudanese-warlord-sheikh-musa-hilal-of.html

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Sudan: Chief of Arab Rizeigat Mahameed clan to mediate between warring tribes in South Darfur

“Sheikh Musa Hilal will lead the initiative as head of the council and native administration* leader, along with other native administration notables and community figures from Darfur and some other states of Sudan”. A Revolutionary Awakening Council spokesperson said that “the root causes of the clashes need to be defined and addressed, to stop them forever”.

Read more in this report from Radio Dabanga - dabangasudan.org/en
Dated 29 September 2023, 13:17 MISTERIYA - here is a full copy:

Musa Hilal to mediate between warring tribes in South Darfur

Musa Hilal (File photo)

Mahameed clan chief and former Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal yesterday announced a reconciliation initiative between the Beni Halba and Salamat tribes that have been fighting each other for nearly two months.

In early August, clashes broke out between Beni Halba and Salamat tribesmen in South Darfur’s Kubum. Several efforts to reconcile the cattle herders failed so far.

Both tribes are ‘Arab’ cattle herders. The stronghold (dar) of the Beni Halba lies in Ed El Fursan. The Salamat settled in Um Dukhun more than two decades ago.

Musa Hilal, chief of the Arab Rizeigat Mahameed clan, former janjaweed leader, and head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC), yesterday announced a reconciliation initiative to put an end to the fighting that has left hundreds of tribesmen dead.

RAC spokesperson Ahmed Abakar told Radio Dabanga that “Sheikh Musa Hilal will lead the initiative as head of the council and native administration* leader, along with other native administration notables and community figures from Darfur and some other states of Sudan”.

He said that “the root causes of the clashes need to be defined and addressed, to stop them forever”.

The spokesperson added that the war “now taking place in Khartoum and some states is political, not tribal,” and called on the Sudanese “to not take it as an entry point for hate speech, tribalism, racism, and social segregation”.

* The Native Administration was instituted by British colonial authorities seeking a pragmatic system of governance that allowed for effective control with limited investment and oversight by the state. The state-appointed tribal leaders were also responsible for executing policies, collecting taxes, and mobilising labour on behalf of the central government. According to the Darfur Bar Association (DBA), the Native Administration during the 30-year rule of dictator Omar Al Bashir did not represent the real community leaders.

View original: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/musa-hilal-to-mediate-between-warring-tribes-in-south-darfur

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Sudan: RSF to turn Zurrug, N Darfur into a dream city

THE ruthless leader of Sudan's Arab militia has grand plans for the remote western province. But the transformation of Zurrug risks more unrest. Read more in this report from the archives of Sudan Watch, copied here in full.

Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war

Report from the The Observer - www.theguardian.com

Observer dispatch Darfur

By KLAAS VAN DIJKEN

Dated Saturday 29 February 2020, 17.05 GMT

Photo: Children at the school in Zurrug sing anti-racism songs that praise the Rapid Support Forces. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

Zurrug is one of the few towns on Earth that has yet to appear on Google maps. After nightfall, its sparse shacks are illuminated by campfires that throw shadows over pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns – the only hint of the violent past of this outpost in Darfur, Sudan’s troubled western province.

The town is being built on the spoils of a brutal war that once tore at the conscience of the world. The victors in that conflict have grand plans for this settlement based on a winner-takes-all vision for their home region – a vision that clouds the future of the whole of Sudan.

The Observer was given unprecedented access to this remote area of Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group whose influence stretches from Sudan’s borderlands with Chad and Libya to the capital, Khartoum, where protesters last year toppled 30-year dictator Omar al-Bashir.

The RSF wants to show off a future city as evidence of the peace it has brought to this contested land. To the vanquished – scattered in their millions across desperate refugee camps within and beyond Sudan’s borders – Zurrug is an insult being built on stolen land.

Darfur and Bashir were back in the headlines last month when Sudan’s transitional government agreed to hand over the ousted president to the international criminal court to face charges of crimes against humanity. These crimes took place in Darfur from 2003, when Bashir unleashed Arab militia, with the backing of the Sudanese army, to crush an insurgency by black African tribes. What began as ethnic clashes over land and water escalated into a crisis that prompted western public demonstrations, celebrity activism and a genocide investigation.

Those armed herders were known at the time as the Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. Today they are called the RSF. Their leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – long referred to as Hemedti – is Bashir’s heir apparent. A renowned and ruthless commander, he was called by Bashir “my protector”, a role that helped him become the wealthiest man in Sudan.

Zurrug is a world away from Khartoum, where riverine Arab elites created a metropolis thanks to their dominance of politics and economy. This makeshift town is a 10-hour drive across the vast plateau from Darfur’s northern city of El Fasher.

In its current form, Zurrug’s market has stalls hawking anything from Chinese phones to sacks of beans. The prefab clinic and school are speckled with the letters “UN”, a reminder that they have been jerry-built from the wreckage of the shrinking peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Unamid.

Photo: Rapid Support Forces on the way from Kutum towards Zurrug. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

According to plans seen by the Observer, Zurrug will become a city. The documents call for residential areas, a hospital and town squares. Officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates visited in 2018 promising to help finance the work, including an international airport.

For now, two water towers mark the entrance to the town, placed there to slake the thirst of the camels, which vastly outnumber either people or vehicles. The largest house belongs to Juma Dagalo, the area’s chief and Hemedti’s uncle. “We were nomads, but now we want to develop ourselves, so we have to settle and send our children to school,” he said.

In his telling, Zurrug belongs to his ethnic group, the Mahariya, having been gifted to them by their former colonial masters, the British. The chief, who brought Hemedti up, says the land was empty.

This story of empty land is bitterly disputed by community leaders in the camps in north Darfur. They claim Zurrug is on land they inhabited for centuries before being forced to leave by the RSF, who used the same tactics – murder, rape and robbery – as the Janjaweed. One of these communities is the Zaghawa, a black African ethnic group who bore much of the brunt of the war crimes alleged in Bashir’s ICC indictment.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a Zaghawa chief or umda, said: “What Juma Dagalo is saying is not true. Zurrug was not empty land. We have our farms there but we cannot harvest. The RSF denies us access.”

Injustice and asymmetric war on civilians dominated much of the three decades that Bashir spent in power. His hold on office relied on a complex of alliances that spanned the Islamists, the army and support among the Arab middle class. Last year the regime collapsed as demonstrators in the cities demanded a civilian government. But insiders claim that Bashir stepped down only when Hemedti refused to use the RSF to crush the demonstrations. The protector switched allegiances from Bashir to the protestors in a move that saw him expand his support base far beyond Darfur.

“I stood beside the Sudanese people,” Hemedti told the Observer from his gilded residence in Khartoum. “A massacre would have happened herein Khartoum, a genocide would have happened on 11 April without our existence.”

The RSF is sanctioned by the state but its allegiance is to Hemedti, not Sudan’s army. His leadership of what is effectively a private army has reportedly helped him make a fortune from gold, construction and alleged smuggling. Hemedti denies that the men he commands perpetrated atrocities, either in their former guise as the Janjaweed or more recently as the RSF.

Today, Hemedti, whose Mahariya clan is part of the populous Rizeigat tribe, is vice-chairman of the sovereign council, the transitional body that is meant to guide Sudan to a new civilian government. But his credentials as protector of the people were stained in June last year when soldiers – many in RSF uniforms – attacked a civilian sit-in in the capital. More than 150 people were killed and many woman were raped. Hemedti denies ordering the violence and blames elements of the former regime seeking to discredit him. His denial is dismissed by most of the protest groups.

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the RSF leader. Photograph: STR/AP

Meanwhile, a struggle is being waged inside the Sovereign Council, and on the streets, to make good on the promise of a transition to civilian rule. The army retains a powerful, possibly decisive voice on the council. Straddling it all is Hemedti, not beholden to Sudan’s army, confident in his wealth and political support. He has the backing of influential Gulf States, cemented by sending the RSF to fight in Yemen alongside Saudi proxies in yet another gruesome conflict.

For now, Hemedti prefers to whitewash the RSF’s recent and deeper past, saying his forces have brought safety and stability to Darfur. On the issue of land, he appears magnanimous: “Whoever took land or built anything on land which is not his, he has to leave it. Everybody has to take his own old land.”

But those who have done the taking in north Darfur are overwhelmingly Hemedti’s own Mahariya people. His uncle, Juma Dagalo, has toured the region enticing members of his own ethnic group to come and settle in Zurrug and six other proto-towns around it. Each one has the same school and clinic, recycled from the UN bases. The teachers and doctors are on Hemedti’s payroll. Water towers, a practical and symbolic way of staking claim to land, have started to appear – all financed by the RSF.

A report last year from the UN panel of experts for Darfur concluded that development around Zurrug was meant to lure people from the cities. It also warned that it had the potential to “become a new source of conflict”.

The land issue is far from buried, and Darfur is part of the same negotiations between Sudan’s transitional government and various rebel groups that saw Bashir offered up to the ICC. Whatever those talks conclude, the facts on the ground are already being changed, with mono-ethnic settlements expanding every day.

After dark in Zurrug the children of the Mahariya gather around a single lightbulb to recite passages from the Qur’an. During the day they sing songs that mash up anti-racism slogans with praise for the RSF. These anthems would ring hollow with the disenfranchised Zaghawa, who have formed committees in their camps and written letters to Sudan’s new leadership. They have had no response and their leader, Mohamed Ibrahim, warns: “If we can’t solve this peacefully, we will take up arms again.”

Source: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2020/03/sudan-blood-sand-and-gold-victors-city.html

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