Two
years after the Sudanese revolution, hundreds of thousands of people have been
internally displaced as violence in Darfur continues. Many hoped a hard-earned
peace agreement would put an end to the decades-old conflict, but the region's
bloody legacy continues.
Thirty-five-year-old
Khamisa Juma Ishag Abaker is perched on a pile of rubble that was once her
home.
Dressed
in a floral print fabric that covers her from head to toe, she sifts through
the dust to uncover an old bottle of perfume and dinnerware gifted to her but
now broken - remnants of her old life.
"My
house had a garden and a door. I could lie down in the shade. I could cook for
my children."
It's
her first time returning to Krinding - a settlement for displaced people -
after clashes in January left tens of thousands of people homeless and hundreds
dead.
"They
burnt all the houses. We tried to flee into the street, but they shot my
brother. He fell and when he tried to stand up, they shot him again - they
killed him in front of me. I've cried so much… my eyes can barely see
now."
Now
living in cramped conditions in a school classroom in El Geneina, the capital
of West Darfur state, she is struggling to take care of her ailing parents and
her children.
"We
don't have money. We don't even have beds, pillows, or blankets… I don't have
anything. I just stare and do nothing."
Ms
Abaker says the Rapid Support Forces [RSF], a paramilitary group tasked by the
government with keeping civilians safe, is behind the attacks.
She
is too afraid to go back.
"If
the international forces came, we could return, but they won't."
The
absence of joint UN-African Union (Unamid) peacekeepers is being felt by many
in West Darfur. After 13 years on the ground, experts say their gradual
withdrawal since December has been met with a surge of violence.
Some
20,000 Sudanese troops were promised to take their place, but they are yet to
arrive.
By BBC
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