Guard killed, pilot abducted in West Darfur

Militiamen reportedly killed a guard and kidnapped a pilot and a translator in West Darfur on Saturday. 

Sheikh Abdelrazeg Yousef Suleiman, the coordinator of Saraf Umra camps in North Darfur, reported to Radio Dabanga that a group of militiamen attacked the office of a relief organisation in Um Tajok in Kereinik locality, on the border with North Darfur.

He said that after they killed office guard Bakrein Abdallah, they took the pilot, a foreigner, with them to an unknown destination. Not much later they demanded a ransom of SDG2 million ($330,000) for his release.

The authorities in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, dispatched a military force to track the suspects. The search led them on Sunday to El Tadamon in North Darfur's Saraf Umra locality, the sheikh claimed. He added that they gave the kidnappers a 24-hour ultimatum for the release of the pilot.

Ministry of Health

According to El Intibaha daily newspaper on Sunday, the Commissioner of Kereinik locality reported that security forces were intensively searching the area for nine militiamen using four-wheel drive vehicles.

Commissioner Mohamed Omar Ramadan told the newspaper that the militiamen killed the guard of a relief organisation in Um Tajok, and abducted a Ukrainian pilot and a Sudanese translator who were present at the organisation's premises. He said that the pilot was working for the Prevention Department of the Sudanese Ministry of Health.