SUMMARY

The SLM/A have carried out some attacks with deliberate killings of civilians making them an active one-sided violent actor. Some of these attacks have been attributed to cattle-rustling raids, other to kidnappings, and the rest to raids on different types of villages. All of those targeted in these attacks were usually Arab-nomads. The AU reported that some elements of SLM/A had fallen into banditry and attributed the SLM/A killing of civilians to this change of part of the rebel group. SLM/A has also been accused on some occasions to have attacked aid-workers. The situation in Darfur with many different types of high-level fighting (state-based, non-state, one-sided) in combination with increased rebel fractionalization and increased level of banditry make it extremely hard to distinguish which perpetrator different attacks had. However, some attacks have been possible to attribute to the SLM/A and all these attacks have taken place in Darfur and most of them in South Darfur.

SLM/A first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2005, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in January that year when the group attacked Malam village, killing at least 30 civilians.