SUDAN: The Sudanese government almost certainly had prior knowledge of militia attacks in Buram, south Darfur, in which several hundred people may have died, Louise Arbour, the UN human rights commissioner, said yesterday.
The attacks, described in a 15-page report as "massive in scale and carried out over a few days", started in late August.
Scores of families were separated in the panic to escape, and many children are missing. The raids emptied some 47 villages and were carried out by between 300 and 1,000 armed men from the Habbania tribe of camel herders, from three African groups, the report says.
The attacks began on August 28th when eight villages were struck by men in khaki uniform riding camels. Cattle and property were looted and hundreds of people were injured or killed. Two days later the village of Amorodh al-Akdhar, where many had taken refuge, was also attacked.
Habbania militias rode horses and camels and were accompanied by two vehicles with mounted machine guns. People tried to flee, but "the assailants fired extensively and indiscriminately, using heavy weapons", the report says.
Another tribe, known as the Fallata, joined the assault in subsequent days as survivors straggled out of the area.
The motives for the attack are unclear. The report points out that thousands of African migrants from the Zaghawa and Massalit tribes moved into the area after drought struck north Darfur in the 1970s. They started cultivating land belonging to the Habbania.