El Fasher , April 21(Darfur 24)
Eyewitnesses said clashes took place on Saturday between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)and forces affiliated with the Joint Force of Armed Movements, in the town of Umm Marahik, 40 kilometers from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
The clashes took place after residents found the bodies of 5 nomadic individuals in a mass grave in Umm Marahik on the roads linking El-Fasher with the city of Mellit, which the Rapid Support recently took control of.
Relatives of one of the victims told Darfur that they found the bodies of five of their sons who had been missing for four days in a mass grave with gunshots on their bodies.
He pointed out that the dead were on their way to the city of Kutum, 136 kilometers northwest of El Fasher, on board a car carrying commercial goods.
He reported that the citizens of Umm Marahik informed the relatives of the victims that members of an armed movement blocked their way and shot them, and they were buried in a mass grave.
Sources told “Darfur 24” that a civil committee consisting of armed men moved to the site of the accident.
Eyewitnesses from Umm Marahik told “Darfur 24” about a fierce battle taking place between a force affiliated with the Joint Force of the Armed Movements, which was setting up a camp in the area and the Rapid Support Forces.
They pointed out that the joint force withdrew from the area to the outskirts of Kornoy locality, northwest of Umm Marahik, after which the attacking force burned at least 30 houses.
Adam Al-Mahdi Abkar, a resident of Um Marahik, told Darfur that the Rapid Support Forces arrested 37 people, including leaders of the civil administration in the neighboring Um Marahik and Sule areas, and transferred them to Mellit.
In the previous week, Melit and El Fasher witnessed confrontations between the Rapid Support Forces and the armed movements allied to the Sudanese army.