By Opheera McDoom
KONDOBE, Sudan (Reuters) - Three elderly Darfuri men hackaway at a pile of logs, struggling to build a new home inKondobe town more than a week after they fled their village toescape government attacks and militia looting.
They had hoped to return after the fighting subsided. Butthey can still hear shooting day and night and could no longersuffer the cramped arrangements with 11 people in a tiny hut.
"We want to return to Bir Dagaig (village)," says AbdallahIbrahim Tour. "But it's still not safe."
A government offensive to retake three towns from rebelsnorth of the West Darfur state capital el-Geneina unleashed astring of attacks by militia on horses and camels.
Residents say the army mobilised the militia for theattacks. The army denies any links and calls them bandits.
Since the offensive the militia have terrorised nearbyvillages, forcing thousands from their homes including Tour andhundreds more from his village.
People took refuge in Kondobe, the last urban bastionbefore el-Geneina, near the border with Chad or soughtprotection near police and army posts. Those from Bir Dagaigare being hosted by family members in overcrowded conditions inKondobe.
Kulthoum Ibrahim Adam said she fled Bir Digaig more than aweek ago after armed men on horses and camels whipped her andher four-year-old son before stealing everything they owned.
"All I managed to pick up was two dresses, this toub (wrap)and a sheet," she said. Her toub was torn and her tiny son'sshirt was filthy.
All her worldly belongings hung from a piece of string inthe gloomy hut.
"Didn't you bring me any biscuits?" her son asks. Herhusband was killed two months before by armed men on the roadto el-Geneina.
WORST VIOLENCE
Sudan's armed forces launched their offensive in WestDarfur on February 8 and said they were clearing out fightersfrom the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Residentsof the targeted towns Abu Surouj, Suleia and Sirba, andsurrounding villages, said rebels had left days before theattacks.
Aid agencies said up to 60,000 Darfuris were affected and12,000 fled into neighbouring Chad to escape the worst violencein the region in months.
Locals say more than 100 civilians were killed althoughthey army says many were rebels in civilian clothing.
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and2.5 million driven from their homes in almost five years ofviolence in Darfur which Washington calls genocide. Khartoumrejects the term and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Survivors of the attacks speak of khaki-clad camel andhorseback militia they call Janjaweed who stole, raped andkilled before the army entered and drove them away.
Sudan's army said these were criminal gangs who tookadvantage of the offensive to loot and denied any links tothem.
In Kondobe, locals pointed out men on horses and camelsroaming through the town market in broad daylight and said theywere the looters.
Some of the riders wore green army uniforms and carriedrifles. When asked, they said they were civilians.
Two others said they belonged to the army and one, al-SadigHaroun, pulled out his Sudan Armed Forces identity card.
"Sudan is good. These people here (in Kondobe) are ourbrothers and we have even married with each other," he said.
He belonged to a nearby army base and was from the ArabRizeigat tribe, he said, and he joined the army two years ago.
Other men on horses with guns slipped under their saddlebags arrived and told journalists to stop filming and beratedtheir colleagues for talking.
(Editing by Robert Woodward)
