Darfur displaced demand investigation into ‘Zalingei massacre’

Three young people who were seriously injured when security forces opened fire on demonstrating Zalingei camp residents on Monday, have been transferred to Zalingei hospital. Six other protesters from El Hamidiya camp are in serious condition. The coordinator of the Zalingei camps for the displaced in Central Darfur told Radio Dabanga that Dar El Naeem Salih Ismail (14), Jawahir Suleiman Idris (14), and Sharif Abakar Khamis(18) were transferred to the hospital of Zalingei. The security forces denied the patients’ relatives access to the hospital. According to the government of Central Darfur, the security forces opened fire at demonstrators because they were violent. The camp coordinator, however, strongly denied this, calling it “fabricated lies”. The coordinator demanded from the UN Security Council to investigate what he called “an intended massacre”. He also demanded Unamid to be replaced because of “its loss of neutrality”. “It appeared from several incidents that Unamid is siding with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).” The coordinators of the Saraf Omra camp for the displaced in North Darfur, Kalma camp in South Darfur, and the Wadi Salih camp in Central Darfur have condemned the security forces’ killing of two displaced and wounding of about 30 others during a peaceful demonstration on Monday in Zalingei. The Saraf Omra camp coordinator told Radio Dabanga that the Darfuris hold the NCP and Unamid responsible for this “new massacre”, and demanded from the UN and the Security Council to immediately investigate the shooting. The Kalma camp residents in South Darfur also condemned “the massacre”, Yagoub Mohamed Abdallah, the Kalma camp coordinator told Radio Dabanga. “The killing of displaced in Zalingei is intended to dismantle the camps,” he explained. He stressed that the targeting of peaceful demonstrations confirms that the NCP government is not serious in its intention to establish peace on the ground. The population of the Garsila camps in Central Darfur State also condemned the shooting on the peaceful demonstrators. At the same time they reject the expected visit of a delegation led by Dr Tijani Sese, the head of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) to the locality, the coordinator of the Garsila camps reported to Radio Dabanga. “Representatives of the Garsila displaced on Monday gathered in Jedda camp, and agreed to completely reject Sese’s visit, or any visit by delegations from the NCP.” On Monday morning residents of Hamidiya, Khamsa Degaig, Hassahissa, and El Salam camps for the displaced in Central Darfur went to the streets in Zalingei to demonstrate against the Social Peace Conferences organised by the DRA. They not only protested against the “government-backed militias speaking on their behalf during the conferences as leaders of the displaced”, but also against the security forces’ assault of Koran scholar and activist, Sheikh Matar Younis Ali Hussein, and the abduction of El Hamidiya camp residents Yagoub Abdallah and Younis Ibrahim by militiamen on Sunday. Security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing two men instantly, and wounding dozens more. File photo: A man shows bullet casings after the security forces dispersed a demonstration in Khartoum against price hikes, September 2013 Related: Two dead, 24 injured as security forces fire on demonstrators in Central Darfur (17 February 2014)