Gunmen threaten to torch Central Darfur camp, market

Militiamen threatened to burn the market and camp for the displaced in Bindisi, Central Darfur, unless the camp residents pay for the losses they allegedly caused last Thursday.

On Thursday, a group of militiamen shot and severely injured camp muezzin El Haj Adam Idris as he tended his farm east of Bindisi. Not much later they kidnapped Mohamed Kojouk and Mohamed Adam Sirri, youths from the camp.

A search party formed by camp residents traced the perpetrators into a nomad settlement in the vicinity. They captured two of the attackers and handed them to the police of Bindisi.

On Friday, the police and the prosecutor of Bindisi visited the settlement and agreed with the attackers that the kidnapped youngsters would be released in return for the release of the two captured militiamen.

This morning however, the militiamen stormed the camp and demanded the payment of SDG185,000 ($30,190) in compensation for the losses they claimed the search party caused last Thursday when they captured their two comrades.

A camp elder told Radio Dabanga that the Commissioner of Bindisi locality intervened and forced the camp residents to pay the amount. “We gave the militiamen SDG5,000 ($820) this afternoon. The rest has to paid before Tuesday.”