Sudanese refugees describe nights of violence, terror in Darfur

Published: 2004-09-09

KOUNOUNGO REFUGEE CAMP, Chad (CNS) -- It was 4 a.m. one day in early August when Bashir Ismael's wife left their home for the local market in western Sudan's Darfur region. It was the last time he saw his wife alive. Within an hour of her departure, Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed, attacked his village of Sileya. More than 100 mounted militiamen fired on his village, he said. "We had no chance to resist. Our people left with nothing; all of our animals were killed," Ismael said in a late-August interview in the Kounoungo refugee camp in northeastern Chad. About 240 people from his village and other parts of Darfur arrived Aug. 26 at the Kounoungo camp, joining about 12,000 other Sudanese. The camp is managed by the Chadian Caritas office, known by its French acronym, Secadev. The group of men sitting with Ismael under a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees tent estimated that at least 42 people from their village were killed in the attack. A fellow villager confirmed for Ismael that his wife was among those dead.

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