Three elderly Darfuri men hack away at a pile of logs, struggling to build a new home in Kondobe town more than a week after they fled their village to escape government attacks and militia looting.
They had hoped to return after the fighting subsided. But they can still hear shooting day and night and could no longer suffer the cramped arrangements with 11 people in a tiny hut.
"We want to return to Bir Dagaig (village)," says Abdallah Ibrahim Tour. "But it's still not safe."
A government offensive to retake three towns from rebels north of the West Darfur state capital el-Geneina unleashed a string of attacks by militia on horses and camels.
Residents say the army mobilised the militia for the attacks. The army denies any links and calls them bandits.
Since the offensive the militia have terrorised nearby villages, forcing thousands from their homes including Tour and hundreds more from his village.
People took refuge in Kondobe, the last urban bastion before el-Geneina, near the border with Chad or sought protection near police and army posts. Those from Bir Dagaig are being hosted by family members in overcrowded conditions in Kondobe.
Kulthoum Ibrahim Adam said she fled Bir Digaig more than a week ago after armed men on horses and camels whipped her and her four-year-old son before stealing everything they owned.
"All I managed to pick up was two dresses, this toub (wrap) and a sheet," she said. Her toub was torn and her tiny son's shirt was filthy.
All her worldly belongings hung from a piece of string in the gloomy hut.
"Didn't you bring me any biscuits?" her son asks. Her husband was killed two months before by armed men on the road to el-Geneina.
WORST VIOLENCE
