Darfur crime overview: Students stabbed in North Darfur’s Kutum

An overview of crimes committed in Darfur during the past week and reported to Radio Dabanga.

North Darfur

Two secondary school students were seriously injured in an attack by militiamen in Kutum on Monday 7 December.

A group of militiamen stormed the students house in Kutum's El Gasir district, and stabbed Mohamed Yahya and Abdelmunim Kheirallah several times in the head. They were taken in serious condition to Kutum Hospital for treatment.

A relative of one of the students appealed to the Commissioner of Kutum locality to order the arrest of the perpetrators “who are well-known to the authorities”.

A villager was abducted in Tawila locality on the same day.

“A group of janjaweed riding camels intercepted Ismail Ahmed at gunpoint on Monday morning,” a relative of the victim reported. “He was on his way to collect firewood not far from Nemra village when they seized him and took him to an unknown destination.”

On 8 December, a displaced firewood collector was shot south of Tawila.

“A militiaman told Abakar Adam Tenna to stop collecting firewood. When he refused, he shot him,” a relative of the victim reported to Radio Dabanga.

Tenna was hit in the shoulder, thigh, and his abdomen. He was taken to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, for treatment.

In the area of Taradona in Tawila locality, popularly known as East Jebel Marra, armed robbers shot dead farmer Ismail Adam Saleh on 10 December. They stole his money, mobile phone, and his donkey.

An eyewitness reported to Radio Dabanga that the gunmen then beat farmer Adam Ibrahim with their rifles. He had to be transferred to a health clinic for treatment of his head wounds and injuries at his shoulders and legs.

On Thursday 10 December, four militiamen riding camels raped a 14-year-old girl in Tawila locality

They ambushed her as she collected straw in the area of Kedareik, five kilometres east of Tabit and raped her alternately from 10 am until 1 pm,” a relative of the victim told Radio Dabanga.

The girl was taken to a clinic in the Zamzam camp for the displaced near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. “She is not able to eat nor talk,” the relative added.

Straw collectors Aisha Ibrahim Mahjoub (18) and Hawa Suleiman Juma (21) were abducted from Mashrou Abu Zeid in Tawila locality, popularly known as East Jebel Marra, on 11 December.

Militiamen took them into the direction of Malam in South Darfur, an eyewitness told Radio Dabanga.

Trader Babiker Adam Osman was released in Kutum on 10 December, militiamen after his family had paid a ransom. He was kidnapped the week before.

In an attack by militiamen on a nomads' settlement north of Tabit, in Tawila locality on 12 December, a herder was shot dead, two women were gang-raped, and livestock was stolen.

A herder reported from Um Arda that “elements of a government militia riding on camels” raided the settlement at 8 pm. “Fadul Abdelmoula Ishag was shot and died instantly. The janjaweed then raped two women alternately, after which they left, taking 45 cows and 16 sheep with them.”

Central Darfur

A resident of the Garsila camp for the displaced in Wadi Salih locality was abducted on 8 December.

“Two militiamen entered the shelter of Babakar Abbas in Garsila camp. They shot at him and beat him on the head, and took him heavily bleeding to an unknown location,” his neighbour reported to Radio Dabanga.

“We have been searching for him until now,” he told Radio Dabanga on Thursday. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to find him.”

South Darfur

Three people were seriously injured in an armed robbery in South Darfur on Wednesday evening 9 December.

“We were returning to Kass after shopping at the weekly Baronga market, when the lorry was stopped by a barrage of bullets,” one of the passengers told Radio Dabanga.

Five gunmen riding camels told the passengers to disembark. They beat and whipped them before they robbed them of their belongings.