The stench of burning hung in the air of Sirba, a town in West Darfur, as its inhabitants returned home to find their belongings in a charred pile, their animals dead and their food gone.
Sudan said it attacked the three remote West Darfur towns of Sirba, Abu Surouj and Suleia to force the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement out of the area and reopen roads connecting the population to the outside world, closed since JEM occupied the area in December.
A third of Sirba's straw huts were burned and the market looted. Animals lay dead in the sandy streets. Dust-covered children swung off scorched branches watching as aid workers, journalists and United Nations-African Union peacekeepers inspected the damage on Tuesday.
"They killed my husband," said Kultoum Abdallah, 30, left without a home or breadwinner to care for her three children.
"I have nothing to eat, what should I do?" she pleaded, breaking into sobs and hiding her face in her bright blue robe. She spent two days in the bush after militias on horse and camelback looted, raped and burned.
Local leader Abakr Suleiman Ibrahim said 10 girls were raped by militiamen, one as young as 10 years old. He estimated that 3,000 people were missing.
Haroun Esam Yehia said he saw the militia, known locally as Janjaweed, burn his home. "I still don't know where two of my sons are," he said. They are 15 and 12 years old.
FACTS DISPUTED
A humanitarian team had brought tents for some who lost their homes, and a first instalment of food for 5,000 people as well as jerry cans and plastic sheeting arrived on U.N. trucks.
Residents and the governor of West Darfur said militias had killed 45-47 people in the attack and burned their houses. Both said the Sudanese army, which entered later, had not touched them. They said the dead were buried in mass graves.
Residents argued fiercely with army and security officials over what had happened during Friday's attacks.
