Darfur crimes: Three men killed, firewood collectors abducted

Three people were killed in violent events in South Darfur’s El Malam on Wednesday. Armed men abducted four women and a man and reportedly raped several of them near Tabit in North Darfur.

Hasaballah El Nur, Nureldeim Yousif Fadul and one of the herders were killed at Keila area 12 kilometres west of El Malam in South Darfur.

Two herders attacked three women on their way to Keila, 12 kilometres west of El Malam, after collecting firewood. The women later reported that the assailants attempted to rape them, a sheikh in El Malam told Radio Dabanga.

The women resisted and one of the herders was hit with an ax in the head, leading to his immediate death. The other herder escaped. Afterwards the women handed themselves and the weapon of the dead over to the police in El Malam.

According to the sheikh, seven relatives of the killed herder went out the same evening to look for his body. “The relatives encountered a group of people returning to Keila after collecting firewood. They shot dead Hasaballah El Nur and Nureldeim Yousif Fadul on the spot.”

This incident has also been reported to the Keila police. “But the police has not gone out to track the culprit, as the corpse is still lying out in the open, they said,” according to the sheikh.

People abducted, raped

On Wednesday, four women and a man were abducted from Kondro area, 18 km west of Tabit, in North Darfur. Family members of the victims told Radio Dabanga that the abduction was carried out by seven armed men in military uniforms, driving a Land Cruiser.

The men intercepted a group of five women and three men who were returning after collecting firewood near Kondro. Two men and a woman managed to escape while Aisha Adam Abdallah (15), Khadija Ahmed Abdallah (25), Maryam Abakar Ibrahim (27), Fatima Ahmed Khatir (32), and Zein Adam Zein (35), were seized, put in the car and taken to an unknown place.

The family members explained that a force of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) moved out after they filed a report about the abduction, to hunt down the kidnappers.

They found Fatima Ahmed Khatir and Khadija Ahmad Abdallah out in the open, whom had lost consciousness and their bodies showed marks of rape. The women have been taken to Tawila’s health centre.

The fate of the three other abductees is unkown at this time of reporting.