Darfur sit-in dispersed, six injured

Six people were injured in Ed Doma, South Darfur, when government forces violently dispersed a sit-in on Saturday. In the state capital Nyala, a group of gunmen raided the home of a young activist and injured his relatives.

People living in Ed Doma in Mershing locality began a peaceful sit-in last week, after at least one person was killed and many others were injured during clashes between the police and a group of gunmen.

The demonstrators demand security and protection of farmers during the current agricultural season. One of them told Radio Dabanga that they blocked the Ed Doma-Nyala road on Friday, calling for the dismissal of the director of the locality, because he ignored their demands.

The government forces dispersed the crowd at the sit-in by shooting in the air and beating the people with batons. Six people, including a woman, were wounded. Two of them were transferred to the Nyala Teaching Hospital in the South Darfur capital.

The South Darfur Women’s Forum said in a statement yesterday that it was surprised to hear that a joint force of members of the army, the Rapid Support Forces militia, and the police was sent to Ed Doma.

The Forum strongly condemned the violent dispersal of the Duma sit-in ordered by the state governor. According to the statement, this “violates the contents of the peace agreement signed in initials last week in Juba and the signing of the Declaration of Principles in Addis Ababa”.

Nyala

In Nyala, the police arrested five people out of a group of eight who attacked the house of student activist Nasreldin Mukhtar in the city on Saturday.

Mukhtar reported on social media that the attackers stormed their house in the Teksas district in the South Darfur capital, beat up his mother with sticks, and stabbed three of his brothers with a knife. They had to be treated at the Turkish Hospital.

Two of the men arrested are paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces.

Mukhtar, who studies agriculture at the Holy Koran University, is a member of the African National Front and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction led by Abdelaziz El Hilu.

He has been detained by security agents three times in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The last time he was released, in 2018, he was told to stop his activities or else his family’s home would be torched.

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