Central Darfur employees on strike against militia attacks

On Sunday, Central Darfur state employees working in Bindisi embarked on an open-ended strike in protest against widespread militia attacks in the area.

“On Friday, groups of militiamen in vehicles, motorcycles, and riding horses and camels assaulted and robbed a large number of people in Bindisi town. The attacks continued on Saturday and Sunday,” a listener told Radio Dabanga.

The strikers told the press in Bindisi that they will only resume their work after the offenders are apprehended and brought to trial, the stolen goods are recovered, and the authorities have put an end to the assaults by the expulsion of all militiamen from the locality.

“The Grand Market of Bindisi remained closed on Friday,” a resident of the town informed Radio Dabanga on Sunday. “The shopkeepers and vendors feared attacks from the militiamen who settled just three kilometres north-west of Bindisi last week.”

He could not say where they came from and why they gathered near the town.

A large number of houses were plundered on Friday, he reported. “They even torched nine of them. They stole 680 sheep, a number of donkeys, 12 motorcycles, about 100 sacks of sorghum and millet, 45 mobile telephones, 200 blankets, and heaps of clothes.

“Hundreds of people who fled their homes are still sheltering at the locality building and the police station,” he added.

Another source said that the militiamen ambushed 10 commercial lorries coming from Foro Baranga on Saturday. “Apart from robbing the passengers of all their money and belongings, including the guns from two army soldiers, they took so-called passage fees of SDG 1,000 ($165) from the drivers at gunpoint.”