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The Jerusalem Post

Sudanese in Israel watch in anguish as Darfur violence unfolds

 
The daughter of Sudanese asylum seekers, four-year-old Ilav looks on as she sits in the Masalit tribe community centre in southern Tel Aviv, Israel June 24, 2023. (photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)
The daughter of Sudanese asylum seekers, four-year-old Ilav looks on as she sits in the Masalit tribe community centre in southern Tel Aviv, Israel June 24, 2023.
(photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

Residents have blamed the violence on Arab militias known as "Janjaweed" and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a faction that has been fighting the army in the capital Khartoum and other areas of Sudan.

Members of Sudan's Masalit tribe in Israel are watching in torment as family and friends have been caught up in factional bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region that has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Chad.

Residents have blamed the violence, centered in the city of El Geneina, on Arab militias known as "Janjaweed" and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a faction that has been fighting the army in the capital Khartoum and other areas of Sudan since April 15.

"There's no internet there but we still have connections to people who are telling us what is happening in El Geneina now," Usumain Baraka, head of the Masalit tribe in Israel, told Reuters.

"The Janjaweed people are going home by home trying to open the windows and doors and killing people. Going from home to home asking, 'Are you from the Masalit tribe?'"

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Just over 5,000 Sudanese people live in Israel, mainly in Tel Aviv, dating to when the brutal conflict escalated in Darfur in 2003.

Israel's aid to Sudan

 Boukary Mandela, 43, an asylum seeker and truck driver from Darfur in Sudan sits in front of pictures of the current and past sultans of the Masalit tribe in the Masalit tribe community centre in southern Tel Aviv, Israel June 24, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)
Boukary Mandela, 43, an asylum seeker and truck driver from Darfur in Sudan sits in front of pictures of the current and past sultans of the Masalit tribe in the Masalit tribe community centre in southern Tel Aviv, Israel June 24, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

At the time, Sudan's government and the Janjaweed were accused of widespread atrocities as they acted to crush an insurgency by rebels complaining of discrimination.

Last week the United Nations raised the alarm over ethnically motivated targeting and killings of Masalit, who comprise the largest single community in El Geneina, amid fears of a repeat of the atrocities.

Baraka said the community in Israel is collecting money to send to refugees in Chad so they can buy food, water and medicine.

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