Darfur: More villages burn, children shot in armed robbery

Groups of gunmen continue to torch villages and destroy public facilities in Tawila and Dar El Salam in North Darfur. Two boys were seriously injured near Tabit when gunmen shot at them. In West Darfur, three people were wounded in an attack on a passenger vehicle. The Sudan Liberation Movement-TC faction will contribute 300 combatants to the new joint force to be established to restore security in the violence-torn western region.

Armed herdsmen are still wreaking havoc in the area south of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. “Groups of militant herders riding on camels are now raiding villages in Tawila and Dar El Salam from which the inhabitants have recently fled,” an activist told Radio Dabanga from Dar El Salam yesterday.

“They are stealing what is left of the villages, including water pumps,” he said. “They are also destroying the water wells in the area. These attacks all happens in front of the authorities who are doing nothing to prevent further destruction.”

He further reported that two children sustained bullet wounds near Tabit in Tawila on Friday.

“It happened when a group of youngsters on a tractor returned with water fetched from the area of Tabit to their village, Hillet Hamed,” he explained. “Upon their return to the village, armed robbers riding on camels suddenly shot at them. Mohieldin Seifeldin (12) and Yousef Mohamed Ali (10) were seriously wounded and had to be transferred to the El Fasher Teaching Hospital.”

The source added that the robbers then took the telephones from the youngsters and fled. The incident was reported to the police of Tabit.

In West Darfur, three people were wounded in a shooting at a passenger vehicle en route from El Geneina to Kereinik on Friday.

According to one of the passengers, gunmen riding on motorcycles attempted to stop the vehicle but the driver did not stop.

“They then shot at us, which led to the injury of the driver, Amer Ahmed, and passengers Hasan Ishag, and Ishag Mohamed. We took them to the hospital of Kereinik, but from there Ahmed and Ishag had to transferred to the El Geneina Teaching Hospital because of their serious condition,” he said.

In October, the harvest month, Radio Dabanga received reports of increased attacks on farms by militant Arab herders. On October 19, the North Darfur state government declared a State of Emergency in Tawila and Dar El Salam to secure the crops.

The violence however reportedly surged since the military coup of October 25.

‘Vacuum’

Chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance and member of the Sovereignty Council, El Hadi Idris, has confirmed the readiness of the forces of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council (SLM-TC) faction to participate in the joint force to be established with the task to restore security and the Rule of Law in Darfur.

Addressing a military parade of the movement's forces in Korma in North Darfur on Friday, El Hadi said that the SLM-TC will participate with 300 fighters, eighteen officers and thirty vehicles.

He explained that the new joint military force will work to fill the vacuum left by the exit of the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on December 31 last year.

The new Sudanese joint force will be backed by field prosecutors and judges in courts to be set up under the Emergency Law.

On December 9, Idris announced that a joint force with special tasks will be formed “within two weeks”, consisting of the Sudan Armed Forces, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), former rebel combatants, and police forces, to contain the situation in Darfur.