Armed robberies, killings continue in South Kordofan, Darfur

During the past two weeks, a cattle-owner and a farmer were shot dead in South Kordofan. A displaced man was killed in a robbery in West Darfur.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga from Kendebe camp for the displaced in Sirba, West Darfur, Mohamed Abakar reported “an increasing chaos and arms sales in the area”.

He said that on Tuesday evening, Abdelghani Bishara was shot dead in the camp by a group of gunmen riding on horses. Another camp resident was wounded.

The attackers stole Bishara’s mobile telephone before they fled. The body was transferred to the mortuary at the El Geneina Teaching Hospital on Wednesday.

The murder was reported to the police of Sirba, “but they did not move, on the pretext that no vehicle was available”. The police referred the case to the joint forces set-up according to the Darfur security arrangements protocol of the Juba Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudanese government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance on October 3 last year.

“In response, displaced from Kendebe camp set up a search posse themselves to track down the perpetrators,” the source added.

Police response

Last Thursday morning, farmer and cattle owner El Daw Amir (46) was shot dead in Teiba village, about five kilometres north of Abu Jubeiha town in South Kordofan.

The Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) reported yesterday that the attackers, who wore uniforms of the dissolved Popular Defence Forces (PDF) militia and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)*, took Amir’s 11 cows with them when they left the village.  

The case was reported to the police of Abu Jubeiha, to no avail.

On October 2, Abdallah Teeya (56) was found dead with gunshot wounds at his farm at the outskirts of Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan. An autopsy at the Kadugli hospital confirmed that Teeya bullets in the head, neck and left arm caused his death.

His relatives reported the violent incident to a police post in Kadugli police, but no investigation was carried out. The police did “not even visit the crime scene,” HUDO stated on Wednesday.

* The paramilitary Popular Defence Forces (PDF) was established not long after Omar Al Bashir’ took power in a military coup in June 1989. Its members received training, uniforms, weapons, and food, but no salaries. The militia operated as a reserve force for the Sudan Armed Forces, and played a major role in the distribution of weapons to, and military training for, tribal militias. After the ousting of President Al Bashir in April 2019, the PDF remained operational, in particular in South Kordofan, until early June 2020, when the militia was officially dissolved. The former members continue to wreak havoc, in particular in South Kordofan.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia was set up by the ousted Al Bashir regime in 2013. The members were mainly mobilised from Darfur and Kordofan to fight against the armed movements in the country. Officially, the RSF was integrated into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) two years ago. In the August 2019 Constitutional Charter it was agreed that both the army and the RSF will fall under the command of the “Supreme Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces”. At the same time however, the militia stayed a force unto intself, commanded by Mohamed Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, Vice-President of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council.