KAKUMA, Kenya (AlertNet) Â? Refugees from Darfur arriving in northwestern Kenya say rights abuses by horseback militia known as Janjaweed are still forcing people to flee their homes in Sudan's violent west.
The conflict in Darfur flared in 2003 when rebel groups took up arms against Sudan's government, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the mostly desert region.
The government has been widely accused of arming the "Janjaweed" - militia forces drawn mainly from the nomadic Arab tribes of the region and blamed for much of the killing over the past seven years. But Khartoum has repeatedly denied any links.
Although Sudan's president declared the war over last week, displaced Darfuris who have travelled as far as Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp in recent months told AlertNet militia attacks had driven them to take the risky journey to safety.
With a toddler strapped on her back, Amina Noor, 23, described a brutal raid on her home and her one-month journey from El Geneina, the main town in West Darfur, to northern Kenya.
"Two months ago, the Janjaweed militia came very early in the morning and started setting all our houses on fire and hacking whoever tried to escape to death," Noor told AlertNet outside her flimsy hut on sandy scrubland.
"When my two friends were raped and hacked to death, I and my child had to run away. I travelled to the Nuba Mountains, where I spent one week, then got public transport up to here," said Noor.
RISKY JOURNEY
As the crow flies, the distance between El Geneina and Kakuma is 1,600 km (1,000 miles). Ibrahim Arbab, another Darfur refugee who made the journey - partly on foot - says it is highly risky.
"Most refugees travel for days between El Geneina and the Nuba mountains; some don't even make it," he said.
There are almost no roads in the Nuba Mountains, and most villages there are only accessible via ancient paths that cannot be navigated by vehicle.
Since January this year, the U.N.-run Kakuma refugee camp - which is located near the border with Sudan and is home to 60,000 mainly Somali and Sudanese refugees - has received 35 refugees who have made the exhausting trip from Darfur.
Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, say women and girls have suffered serious abuses in Darfur, including rape, even during times of relative calm.
Arbab, who arrived in Kakuma in August, said: "They (the Janjaweed) hacked helpless pregnant women to death and I saw with my eyes as two men threw three of my uncle's children into a burning hut."
The claims come a week after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declared the war over following an initial settlement with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Darfur's most powerful rebel force.
Direct peace talks between JEM and Khartoum are due to begin in Qatar this week after months of clashes and protracted negotiations.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), renewed fighting has led to displacement in the eastern Jebel Marra region in the states of South Darfur and North Darfur, as well as western Jebel Marra and Jebel Moon in West Darfur.
"Most of the people in Darfur are trapped in camps because they have no protection and no way of leaving Sudan either to go to Chad or to come to Kakuma," said Arbab.
With continued attacks in Darfur and flaring political tensions between North and South Sudan ahead of next month's presidential and legislative elections, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) is making contingency plans for up to 40,000 new Sudanese refugees to cross the border into Kenya.
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