Two weeks after the Sudan Armed Forces took control of Al Latmor, a key town on the road between Kauda and Kadugli, SAF infantry marched to Karkari Kain, a nearby village of 3000 people.
The town had fled and the government soldiers destroyed almost every home that remained. The destruction comes a year after SAF demolished a hundred houses in the farming village.
On June 6th, residents of Karkari Kain woke to the sounds of the battle taking place in Al Latmor only three miles away. Once the government forces took control of the town they started shelling Karkaria Kain and other surrounding villages. Residents fled into the nearby hills to find cover. Musa Hamid, a community leader in Karkaria Kain told Nuba Reports that residents took what they could carry and fled, “We ran away…because the war brought the enemy close to us.”
SAF infantry marched into Karkari Kain on June 21st. The village was deserted and the troops proceeded to loot and burn the village. The smoke was visible for miles around. Nuba Reports estimates that fifty homes were burnt in the town. In addition forty houses with tin roofs were dismantled and stolen.
SAF soldiers climbed each of the homes, breaking the bricks that hold the roofs up and stealing the valuable tin. The tin can be sold in nearby markets. During peacetime families in Nuba would work for years to be able to afford the metal roofing material which represents wealth and prestige in the community.
When SPLA-N forces saw the smoke rising from the village they went to investigate. By the time they arrived, all that was left was it’s charred remains. “If the Sudan Government troops were given more time they would have done more damage to the village,” SPLA-N Brigadier General Dawood Isaiah told Nuba Reports.
With nowhere to go but the mountains, displaced families are surviving on the food supplies they fled with, and assistance from nearby communities. With harvest season months off, the situation is dire for most. “When the enemy came we ran and I had one sack of corn and now it is finished, We don’t have anything to eat now” said Sarah Tutu, a mother now living in the mountains.
The incident comes after a particularly brutal fighting season which displaced tens of thousands and puts many more at risk of starvation over the long rainy season. Currently SPLA-N and SAF forces continue to battle over Al Latmor, with both holding it for a time and being pushed out. It is now controlled by SAF forces.
