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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SUDAN: Heavy fighting in Malakal
KHARTOUM, 23 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - "Heavy fighting" broke out in the town of Malakal on Thursday morning between Nuer and Shilluk ethnic groups, according to local sources.
The clashes started at 11:30 local time in the town near the main boat station along the Nile river, sources told IRIN. Civilians said the feuding became so widespread that the army and police intervened and declared a state of emergency.
All shops in the town were closed down and people ordered to stay indoors, while the army patrolled the roads surrounding the town. No fatalities were reported.
The violence reportedly stemmed from an attack on Wednesday on a raft carrying 25 Nuer civilians transporting 500 kg of wood and charcoal to sell in the market. According to eyewitnesses and Oxfam UK, three people were killed and the raft was set alight.
Residents of Malakal saw the burning raft floating towards them, sources told IRIN. "The dead bodies were found floating down the river," Otom George, an attendant of the Shilluk king, Kwango, told IRIN.
Another three people are still reported missing, while 19 managed to escape from the burning raft and are now in Malakal.
The survivors were unable to identify their assailants, but many Nuer have accused Shilluk tribesmen of launching the attack in retaliation for the militia violence that occurred in the surrounding Shilluk Kingdom in March and April 2004.
According to the US-led Civilian Protection Monitoring Team, government-allied militias of predominantly Nuer tribesmen (although some Shilluk and Murle elements were also included) commenced a scorched earth policy against villages surrounding Malakal town at the time.
Isaac Kenyi, the executive secretary of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference, undertook a fact-finding mission to the area and estimates that as many as 625 civilians have been killed by the fighting this year and 100,000 forcibly displaced.
Government-allied militia raids on Alek village, home of the revered Shilluk king, Kwango, incited further inter-tribal animosity. The king's home was burnt to the ground and hundreds of his cattle were looted.
The king, or Reth, plays a central role in the Shilluk political and legal administration.
One of the eight sacred Shilluk shrines of Nykango, the historical spiritual leader who led the Shilluk tribe across Africa, was also left in cinders. The sacred stool of Nykango is held in mystical veneration by the Shilluk people. "They had no right to touch such an important symbol of ours," complained one Shilluk resident.
The Shilluk Kingdom became destabilised after 25 October 2003, when Lam Akol, the leader of a government-allied militia, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A-U), re-defected from the government side to the mainstream SPLM/A. Until then, the area had enjoyed the enviable distinction of having stayed out of Sudan's civil war.
As a result of a power vacuum created by Akol's realignment, Khartoum brought in militiamen to the area to support the SPLM/A-U rump faction, now led by James Othow, and clear potential SPLM/A supporters.
Some of Akol's Shilluk forces did not support his move back to the SPLM/A, and were divided over whether or not to fight their former partners. For the first time in many months, government forces reportedly became embroiled in the conflict, while the militias razed an unknown number of villages to the ground, looting and killing along the way.
The defection of Lam Akol and, perhaps more importantly, that of his first commander Awad Jago, to the SPLM/A has severely diminished Khartoum's influence in this strategic location.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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