East Darfur: 16 killed in militia-army clash

Seventeen people were killed in two separate clashes involving soldiers and militiamen near Ed Daein in East Darfur on Friday and Saturday. Security authorities reported to have defused tensions from further escalating.

On Friday, policemen exchanged gunfire with three armed youth on motorcycles in Kamal area, 25km west of Ed Daein. The police, driving a vehicle, shot one of the youth and killed him.

The bodies of 16 dead army and police personnel were returned to Ed Daein on Sunday, along with seven wounded soldiers, after a clash with gunmen in Katwa Auja 30km west of the state capital.

Following the incident, the state's security committee held a meeting and ordered the deployment of a joint military and police force, on board 13 vehicles, to ​​Katwa Auja, where the incident occurred. More details of the fighting have not yet been reported.

A reporter in the region, Khalifa Kushayb, told Radio Dabanga that the situation has become calm after the return of the dead bodies. “Sadness prevails in Ed Daein for the loss of a number of its inhabitants.”

It is worth mentioning that all five states of Darfur have prohibited the use of motorcycles and wearing of masks for the face – called kadmool – in an attempt to reduce theft and assaults by unidentified armed men and groups that are known to use motorcycles.

Hijack

Gunmen hijacked the vehicle of the head of the economic committee of South Darfur, Mustafa El Rabi, from in front of his house in Nyala on Sunday.

A resident of El Wadi district in the city reported that four armed men, wearing military uniforms, drove in a vehicle without plates at the time of the robbery. They took El Rabi's vehicle under the threat of arms.