Five Sese camp leaders detained by West Darfur Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence operatives detained five leaders of the Sese camp for the displaced in West Darfur on Friday.

A relative of one of the detainees told Radio Dabanga that Military Intelligence summoned the five camp leaders to their headquarters in Sese on Friday. “They then immediately transferred them to the military garrison of El Geneina.”

The families of detainees Omda Haroun Khater Khamis, basic school teacher Bahreldin Omar Abdallah, trader Bakhit Mohamed Ismail, Saleh Arbab, and Khamis Suleiman Tom, went to visit them to provide food and clothing. “But we were not allowed to see them,” he said, expressing their fear that the detainees may be subject to ill-treatment and torture.

“We understood from the guards that the five detainees are accused of openly complaining to the governor about attacks by militiamen.”

On 7 October, militant herders besieged Sese camp after a relative of them was found dead in the wilderness not far from the site.

“The herders immediately accused the displaced of killing the woman,” the Murnei camp coordinator reported. “They surrounded the camp on Friday and threatened to kill anyone who attempted to enter or leave the camp.”

He said that they shot a displaced man dead that Friday, and that people in the camp were living in great fear, as the herdsmen threatened to set fire to the camp. “What is worse is that they are unable to fetch water from the well, visit their farms, or buy daily requirements from Murnei.”

After two weeks, West Darfur Governor Saad Bahreldin and representatives of the security and military organs visited Sese camp. They vowed to oblige the attackers to leave the displaced and their farms in peace.