Selea, West Darfur, February 28, 2007

Sudanese women sit and await food and non-food items being distributed by international humanitarian organizations in the village of Selea, which was recently bombed along with two other villages north of Geneina by the Sudanese government and simultaneously attacked by armed men on camels, horseback and donkeys, otherwise known as Janjaweed, in West Darfur, Sudan, February 28, 2008. The government spate of bombings was in response to an ambush two months prior by rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement, and subsequent intelligence that JEM members were living in these villages and using them as a base. After a period of relative quiet, there has been a great deal of renewed fighting between the Sudanese government with militias loyal to the government and rebel factions, namely JEM. Dozens of civilians in Selea, Sirba, and Abu Sarooj were killed in the attacks around February 8-9th, many others were injured, and a large percentage of each of the three villages was burned to the ground.