Abductions from Darfur camp, villages

Militiamen abducted displaced people from Sortony camp in North Darfur for the second consecutive day. Two women were kidnapped and taken to a militia base in East Jebel Marra.

“Pro-government militiamen” have abducted five camp residents of Sortony in Kabkabiya locality, the coordinator of the camp told Radio Dabanga. “On Monday morning, the men, riding camels, held Haroun El-Tahir and Abdelmajeed Ishag west of the camp at gunpoint before taking them to an unknown destination.”

Three displaced people were abducted from the vicinity of Sortony on Sunday afternoon, the coordinator reported. Militiamen in two vehicles, and others riding camels, attacked Jeddah Ishag Abdel Mawla, Khadija Mohamed and Omar Yagoub Fakhreddin and took them to an unknown destination. Other people managed to escape.

Five members of a group of displaced people who travelled from Teo to Sortony were abducted by militiamen on Sunday too.

Meanwhile, a rocket-propelled grenade hit Sortony and seriously wounded a youth leader in the camp, Abdallah Abdel Jabbar, and Osman Mohamed, on Sunday evening. A mosque built of straw was heavily damaged. According to the camp coordinator, militiamen fired the RPG.

Sortony, adjacent to the Unamid base, is a site where people recently displaced from the mountainous Jebel Marra in Darfur have sought refuge. Increased hostilities between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Abdel Wahid faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, that started in early 2016, have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes to other areas in the Darfur region, including Sortony.  

Women kidnapped

On Monday morning, gunmen riding camels kidnapped two young women who went out of Mashrou Abu Zeid in East Jebel Marra to collect firewood. A family member of the victims told Radio Dabanga that Sarah Yagoub Adam (18) and Kaltoum Yousif Suleiman (21) have been taken to Numeira, the headquarters of a militia.

Seven other women from East Jebel Marra whose names were not identified on Monday are being held at the headquarters. A source in the area pointed out that it is a training centre for militiamen. About 150 militia members and seven Land Cruisers are stationed there.

“They wage campaigns of terror against the locals, beating them and preventing them from gathering firewood, or the preparation of their agricultural lands. They steal livestock and rape women throughout the area from East Jebel Marra to Tabit in Tawila.”