Four children injured in explosion, insecurity persists after ‘genocide’ attacks in West Darfur

Four children between the ages of 9 and 14 were seriously injured when an unexploded ordnance (UXO) detonated in Kereinik, West Darfur. The exploded device was a remnant of the attacks on Kereinik last month, which are described as a genocide by the Higher Committee to Stop the Massacres in West Darfur.

Local residents told Radio Dabanga that the projectile exploded while the children were trying to play with it. They pointed out that the children were Kawsar Ibrahim Ahmed (14 years old), Farida Mohamed Abakar 13, Umelnas Yahya (11), whose condition is most serious, and Majdi Hassan Ibrahim (9) years old. Their mother was also injured. 

All children were brought to the Kereinik Rural Hospital. 

According to the witnesses, the exploded projectile was one of the remnants of the attacks on Kereinik at the end of last month, which led to the death of more than 200 people and the injury of at least 136 others. More than one hundred thousand were displaced as a result of the violence.

Lack of security

The security situation in Kereinik is still worrying, especially the roads towards El Geneina and other important areas in West Darfur witness armed robberies and murders. 

On Wednesday, for example, armed militias intercepted a lorry on its way from El Geneina tp Kereinik and looted large sums of cash and mobile phones from the passengers. They also physically assaulted the passengers and forced them to unload a shipment of coal and firewood.

Residents of Kereinik told Radio Dabanga that twenty armed men in four-wheel-drive vehicles blocked the road near the Tria area, southeast of Habila locality, and fired a large number of bullets in the air to intimidate the occupants and the passengers. They ordered the driver to change the course of the vehicle and head back to El Geneina without any shipment instead of coming to Kereinik.

They explained that the looted sums amounted to 580,000 SDG. Ah report was opened under Article 144 of terrorist crimes at the El Geneina Police Department.

Yesterday morning, armed militias looted cash, property, and phones of passengers of a Buffalo vehicle near the Hashaba area, which is located west of Kereinik.

Genocide

Kamal El Zein, a member of the Higher Committee to Stop the Massacres in West Darfur, said that what happened in Kereinik is genocide and systematic liquidation of people.

In a solidarity meeting with the victims of Kereinik, organised by the Communist Party in Khartoum on Wednesday, he denied that the conflict was the result of tribal issues and emphasised the existence of hate speech that was perpetuated by the former regime of Omar Al-Bashir,

El Zein further said that the Kereinik massacre was planned and accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the coup authorities of mismanaging the matter with the aim of controlling the resources.

In that same meeting, Safaa El Agib from the Darfur Women's Forum said that what happened in Kereinik is a massacre that targeted civilians "in front of the eyes of the world, UNITAMS and, the authorities".

She stressed that the protection and safety of civilians, especially women, is an inherent right and explained that the international community should intervene if the state fails to protect civilians.

She further explained that the issue of security arrangements is currently a matter of arranging the conditions of the armed forces and has nothing to do with the protection of civilians. She also confirmed the right of citizens to reject forces representing a specific ethnicity.

The committee, which aims to address armed civil conflicts in West Darfur, proposed a number of solutions, including disarming the general population, integrating the RSF and armed rebel forces into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and restructuring them, protecting displacement camps, removing the native administration from politics, and stopping hate speech .