‘Disarmament in Darfur will start this year’: Sudan V-P

The second vice-president of Sudan has announced the collection of weapons in Darfur and the reorganisation of the country’s armed forces before the end of this year. Seven people were killed, two wounded, and four kidnapped in separate incidents in the country’s western region last week.

“We will leave weapons in Darfur only for certain purposes,” Second Vice-President Hasabo Abdelrahman said in a speech at the closing session of a Sufi conference of the El Tijaniya in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on Sunday.

He called on the Sufi leaders to spread tolerance and compassion among the population and denounce conflicts and extremism.

“We do not believe in Shia or Islamic State,”he said. “There is no compulsion in religion. Moderation is our style and culture.”

He further explained that the collection of illegal arms in the conflict-torn western region will be voluntary in the beginning, and become compulsory in a later stage.

The Minister of Defence recently announced a reform of “the supporting forces of the army”, by which the various government militias will be dissolved and its members join the country’s main militia, the Rapid Support Forces.

Violence

Last week, four people, including a child, were killed and two were wounded in a shooting by gunmen on a group of Arab nomads near Hashaba, west of Gireida, in South Darfur.

“On Thursday afternoon, a group of gunmen opened fire at a group of Misseriya nomads who were on their way from El Nadeef to Um Dawanban in the area of Hashaba, 10 km west of Gireida,” a listener reported to Radio Dabanga.

“Mohamed Ali Mousa (39), Fatouma Mohamed Sayed (39), Mahdi Ali (20), and Ahmed Mousa Yagoub (10) were fatally hit, while Saeed Ali and Yasin Adam were wounded.”

He said the gunmen fled, taking with them about 100 cows.

On Wednesday, a group of 13 militiamen on camels and horses stormed the village of Kukulo Fago, near Golo in Jebel Marra, firing in the air.

“Halima Ibrahim Mousa and her child were killed instantly. The attackers seized about 70 goats and fled,” the coordinator of the Central Darfur camps for the displaced, El Shafee Abdallah, reported.

In North Darfur, a guard was shot dead in an ambush by gunmen on motorcycles on three commercial lorries loaded with onions, en route from Birkat Seira in Saraf Omra to the state capital of El Fasher on Friday.

Abducted

Four people were abducted from the villages of Termo and Darlo belonging to the Abta administrative unit north-east of Zalingei in Central Darfur on Saturday.

The coordinator of the Central Darfur camps reported on Sunday that gunmen kidnapped Abdelaziz Eisa Hammad and his son Abulkheirat from Termo on Saturday, while on the same day, Jammaa Adam and El Fereet Mandi were abducted from Darlo village.

“The kidnappers claimed that the four killed one of their relatives in 1970,” El Shafee Abdallah said. “However the men who were abducted were born in 1976, 1980, and 1985, while Abdelaziz arrived to Termo village in 1990.”

He said that the four victims were taken towards the area of Teigi, west of Kabkabiya in North Darfur, and called on Unamid to intervene.

Meanwhile, Zakariya Mousa Osman and Bahreldin Jabir who were abducted from Saraf Omra in end June are still held hostage by the paramilitary Border Guards.

Civil society activists in Saraf Omra have called on human rights organisations “to take action and end this suffering”.