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Today in @Trouw: an important follow up on the violent strategies that one of #Sudan’s current leaders, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemedti’, keeps to in order to claim North #Darfur as his home. A story of scorched lands and ghost towns. https://www.trouw.nl/verdieping/gebouwd-op-gestolen-land-hoe-de-stad-zurrug-in-darfur-een-monument-voor-de-winnaar-wordt~b655ebc4/
Previously @klaasvandijken reported about Hemedti’s grand plans to transform contested land in northern #Darfur into a new city for his tribe, called Zurrug https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/darfur-towns-rise-out-of-ashes-of-sudan-war To many people, Zurrug is an insult built on stolen land.
Zooming in on the militia leader’s tactics to gain power over the land. Hemedti’s Rapid Support Forces have raided and torched villages to run out farmers and tribesmen from North Darfur. This is backed up in a research I did for @LHReports using #OSINT and satellite imagery.
Towns, farms and residents have been attacked by the RSF at least 93 times since 2016, a news analysis of reports from sources like @Radiodabanga shows. In ten cases, historical satellite imagery indicates that towns have been destroyed during these attacks. Ghost towns remain.
Footage that satellites recorded of Masteriha indicates multiple roofs and houses have disappeared following brutal attacks the Rapid Support militias launched in 2017. Civilians were killed, houses raided and torched, and many people fled the area, according to UN researchers.
The displacement tactics by Hemedti and his militias continued until recently, in Zurrug. Farmers who try to visit their farms are denied access by the RSF in the area and harassed. One of them said: ‘It’s no use going to the police for help. The RSF are in charge here.’
Hemedti leads his family’s efforts to build the city of Zurrug in North Darfur on land contested by displaced communities. On the land they claim has been theirs for ages, Hemedti’s clan builds schools - with the former mobile offices of the shrinking UNAMID peacekeeping mission.
Zurrug continues to be expanded, but the land ownership issue in Darfur is far from buried. Read more in Trouw today: https://www.trouw.nl/verdieping/gebouwd-op-gestolen-land-hoe-de-stad-zurrug-in-darfur-een-monument-voor-de-winnaar-wordt~b655ebc4/ and take a look at Zurrug yourself with its coordinates: 15.0905555551, 24.8325000009.
[Satellite images by @planetlabs]
[Satellite images by @planetlabs]
I retrieved coordinates and analysed over a hundred villages for this research, inspired by the work of @amnesty http://darfurconflict2016.amnesty.org/report/5 and @BenDoBrown on using #OSINT techniques https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2018/09/04/identify-burnt-villages-satellite-imagery%E2%80%8A-case-studies-california-nigeria-myanmar. Support of @FondsBJP and @PostcodeLoterij made this research possible.
