Darfur's tumultous Jebel Marra region/ Photo: Matt Powell Humanitarian Photography

At a speech last week in the North Darfur capital of El Fashir President Omar al-Bashir confidently announced that “the crisis in Darfur is finished; the war in Darfur is over. Darfur is now at peace”. Bashir echoed a similarly misguided claim made last August by the outgoing head of UNAMID, shortly before a series of renewed clashes and violent attacks against his own troops.

Bashir appears to have a skewed definition of peace, as certain areas of Darfur have since January been consistently beset by fighting, which seems to be escalating.

Despite progress toward a ceasefire between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the areas around Jebel Moun and Jebel Marra remain highly volatile.

This past week, the increasingly violent clashes between SLM-AW and Sudan Armed Forces in Deribat have caused mass displacement and an estimated 140-400 civilian casualties. There has been no international assistance available to the victims in the Jebel Marra region after Médecins du Monde was forced out last week.

The SLM-AW leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur called the Doha framework “ceremonial,” adding that his movement wants “a genuine peace realizing the demands of Darfur people who are suffering in camps since seven years after losing their relatives and homes”. However, al-Nur has refused to be a part of any peace negotiations and the SLM-AW has in some recent cases exacerbated the security and humanitarian situation in parts of Darfur by restricting peacekeeping and aid access.

JEM condemned the escalating hostilities in a statement on February 28^th denouncing:

“the exploitation by Khartoum regime of a ceasefire outlined in the Framework Agreement signed with the Movement on February 23, 2010 to launch a sweeping attack on the positions of resistance in the Jebel Marra and to bomb peaceful villages and kill unarmed civilians.”

The Department of State and UNAMID both issued statements on Tuesday urging the SLA/AW and the Government of Sudan to refrain from further aggression. UNAMID also announced that it will be taking further measures to verify the reports of violence in the region, but an investigative patrol heading to Deribat over the weekend was ambushed. The peacekeeping personnel were held over night and major assets seized by the attackers. It remains to be seen whether the newly arrived tactical helicopters will enhance the mission’s ability to address the insecurity in the mountainous region.

Recent background

Renewed fighting between SLM-AW and SAF troops flared up last July after their forces clashed in Nertiti and re-emerged from September 2-17^th primarily in Korma where 18 civilians were killed and over 31,000 were displaced. For the remainder of the year the situation in Jebel Marra relatively stabilized with conflict on a smaller scale, until January 13^th when the SLM-AW attacked Gulu the capital of Jebel Marra in response to earlier bombings on rebel positions. Intense clashes have continued throughout January and February, and on February 13^th and 14^th government troops attempted to re-take Aradyeb Al-Asharah. The SLM-AW was able to maintain control but SAF forces made a second offense attempt on the town on February 24-25^th which according to rebel commander Nourredine Janga, “40 people were killed and 28 young girls and 8 women were raped”. Since January fighting has occurred elsewhere in Jebel Marra region including Kadmir, Lidy, Fugly, Dogo and Kotor.

Increasing amounts of civilians have been displaced due to intense fighting this past week with additional 40,000 civilians displaced from Deribat without any support from international aid organizations who have also fled the region. Another 5,400 civilians from Jebel Marra have been displaced to Nierteti and UNAMID estimated that 1,500 civilians have been displaced to Thur.

Shannon Orcutt is a policy intern at the Save Darfur Coalition.