Attachments
This brief by the Darfur Protection Sector is based on inputs from partners, community networks and other sources. It has not been possible to verify all included information due to access constraints and communications breakdowns.
Key Points:
- Direct impacts of the conflict on civilians increased across the Darfur region over September and October. While they remained most severe in North Darfur, there was a broader uptick in the frequency of aerial bombardments as well as armed clashes across the northern corridor of West Darfur.
- The proliferation of small weapons and ineffective responses, or lack thereof, to criminality continue to underpin significant ongoing protection risks for displaced and non-displaced civilian populations.
- Against the backdrop of an intensification of the conflict in parts of Darfur, there are increasing reports of arbitrary arrest and detention based on suspected affiliation with or support of parties to the conflict.
- Protection risks, including sexual violence disproportionately targeting women and girls, continue to inhibit safe engagement in agricultural activities with attempts by local-level mechanisms to address related intercommunal tensions having mixed results.
- Children have heightened exposure to protection risks linked to deepening food insecurity, family separation and death and injury caused by unexploded ordnance.
Overview:
A total of 178 protection incidents were reported by Darfur Protection Cluster members over September-October 2024, resulting in the deaths of at least 122 civilians and injuries to 177, as well as the displacement of an estimated 175,360 people. It is understood that more incidents have occurred and that the impacts of the reported incidents have not been captured fully as reporting is hindered by communication challenges, constraints on access and generalized insecurity. Armed conflict was once again the most frequently reported protection incident, with almost all of the reported incidents taking place in North Darfur. While no incidents primarily categorized as crop destruction were captured in the incident tracker, six incidents were categorized as being related to engagement in agricultural activities and at least 3,000 farms were reported to have been destroyed as a consequence of flooding. The qualitative feedback gathered from communities through protection monitoring and other channels, continues to indicate a much broader range of protection concerns inhibiting access to agricultural land than the number of crop destruction incidents reported would suggest. Similarly, protection monitoring indicates that GBV incidents take place much more frequently than reflected in the incident tracking data but remain underreported due to barriers to accessing relevant services and community stigma.