Herders shoot three farmers dead in North Darfur

Three farmers were killed and another was wounded in a revenge attack by herdsmen in El Salam locality in North Darfur on Saturday. The farmers had removed the herders’ livestock from their farms.

“When a group of camels trespassed on farms in the neighbourhood of Dolma, 20km north of Shangil Tobaya, on Saturday morning, the farmers took the animals and handed them to the police of Shangil Tobaya,” a relative of one of the victims told Radio Dabanga.

“That evening, about 20 armed herdsmen on camels and four others on motorcycles arrived at the area, and immediately started shooting at the farmers present. Abdelrahman Saleh, Ahmed El Nur, and Ali Yahya died instantly. Adam Abdelshakour was wounded.”

The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in North Darfur condemned the killing in a statement on Sunday.

The FFC members called on the acting state governor “to fully play your role in protecting unarmed civilians and agricultural land”. They proposed the establishment of a joint team of regular forces tasked with protecting farmers and people living in the area from such attacks. The herders should graze their livestock at pastures defined in the state maps.

The North Darfur activists also proposed the establishment of an independent committee to investigate the crimes committed by militant herders and other gunmen in the state in the past years.

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