A/HRC/9/13 page 13 46. In the first three weeks of July 2008 there were 21 separate incidents of aerial bombardment. The air strikes were carried out by the Government of Sudan with Antonov aircrafts and MIG fighter jets. Reportedly, the strikes impacted in the vicinity of civilian communities and allegedly resulted in the deaths of 12 persons, including 5 women and 2 children. The United Nations received further reports that civilian objects, in particular cultivated land and livestock, were also destroyed. 47. In another worrying example of a direct attack on civilian targets by Government forces, an attack on Tawilla by members of the Central Reserve Police (CRP) on 12 May left the town completely deserted. After a CRP member was found dead inside the Rwanda IDP camp, CRP personnel responded by burning and looting of huts and destroying the market. Approximately 20,000 people from Tawilla town and the IDPs from Rwanda camp were forced to flee the area. As of 22 July 2008, most have not returned to the area. Representatives of the local community complained about killings, violent assaults and rapes that occurred during the attack. No action has been taken for accountability and justice. 48. Civilians also continue to suffer from violence and abuses carried out by both signatory and non-signatory rebel groups. During the Special Rapporteur’s visit to the Mario villages near Kafod she was extremely concerned to see an example of this. Armed clashes between the two signatory factions, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/MM and SLA/Free Will on 21 May resulted in the almost complete destruction of the villages, including the burning down of the mosque. The clashes killed 13 civilian villagers, including the mullah and the muezzin and injured another 8 (see the addendum to this report). 49. In Gereida, South Darfur, under the control of SLA/MM, the Special Rapporteur enquired about the case of 19 Massalit men who were arrested by SLA/MM and then disappeared on 29 September 2006 following an attack on Gereida by an armed group. In October 2006 a mass grave was found containing the remains of some of those who had been arrested. The Special Rapporteur called upon the Government to investigate, inform the families of the fate of their relatives and bring the perpetrators of human rights violations to justice. To date the Special Rapporteur has not received any information. 50. Many communities and other interlocutors in Darfur expressed strong concerns regarding what they perceived as the inability of UNAMID to protect the civilian population from the conflict and incidents such as the one that occurred in Tawilla right next to a UNAMID camp. At the same time, the 8 July attack that killed seven UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur tragically demonstrated the risks United Nations personnel run in carrying out their mission. The population’s expectations of the relatively new mission, which is still struggling with deployment issues, may well be unrealistically high and very often United Nations personnel on the ground simply do not have the resources and support to intervene to the full extent of their mandate. If the trust and support of the population is to be maintained it is essential that the Sudanese Government and the international community give their unconditional support to speeding up and completing the deployment of UNAMID and to ensuring that the mission is fully staffed and equipped to effectively carry out its core mandate of protection of civilians. Such support must be combined with more active awareness-raising activities amongst communities.