9+ dead in South Darfur village market attack

At least nine formerly displaced people were killed and five others were wounded in a shooting by gunmen at the market of Hijeir Tongo, south of Nyala, capital of South Darfur on Monday evening.

One of the village sheikhs, Mubarak Ahmed, told Radio Dabanga that at about 9 pm on Monday five armed men on camels opened fire on formerly displaced people who had returned to Tongo village.

The dead include Abubaker Abdallah, Ibrahim El Sayer, Ahmad Tibin, Adam Zakariya, Yahya Jibril, Abdallah Abdelrahman , Abdelaziz Saleh, Abdallah Mousa and Fatniya Abakar. Fatouma Adam, Abdallah Adam, Mahmoud Abdallah, Maryam Zakariya, and Sadig Jadallah were wounded.

The village sheikh said that yesterday the governor came to the village and ordered the burial of the dead, while no one went out to track-down the perpetrators.

Voluntary return

Sheikh Ali El Tahir, the head of the sheikhs in the Darfur displaced camps, told Dabanga Radio that the government is unable to stop the war and protect the voluntary returnees despite its repeated calls for the displaced people to return voluntarily.

He explained that the weapons collection announced by the government is nothing but a plan to leave the arms in the hands of the militiamen that kill the displaced, pointing out that the victims of ​​ Hijeir Tongo are displaced people who have returned to their villages.

He stated that the crime of Hijeir Tongo was preceded by similar crimes by killing all the displaced who had returned to their villages from displaced people camps in the presence of Unamid and government forces.

El Tahir renewed his warning to the displaced not to return to their villages so as not to be killed in cold blood.

He called on the United Nations and the UN Security Council to act to protect the displaced, pressure the government to stop killing them and bring to justice those who have committed crimes against the displaced.

Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association

The Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association holds the government and Unamid the responsibility for the attack on Hijeir Tongo village, which resulted in the killing of nine people and wounding five others.

The spokesman for the association Hussein Abusharati described the attack on Hijeir Tongo, and in May on the Khamsa Dagayig camp and the Aradeiba camp in Central Darfur, as planned and systematic crimes aimed at threatening and intimidating the displaced people from returning to their villages.

The association called on the government to track down the perpetrators, arrest them and bring them to justice to receive their punishment.

It also called on the international and the regional community, the Security Council and human rights organisations to stand for the displaced people of Darfur and pressure to protect them.