Man bayoneted to death in Darfur, others injured in clash with RSF militia

A resident of the Kendebe camp for the displaced in West Darfur’s Sirba was killed by an unknown gunman on Thursday. In Ed El Fursan in South Darfur, five people and two members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were wounded at the town’s market.

On Thursday evening, a gunman intercepted a group of men living in the Kendebe camp on their way home after having prayed at a mosque in the neighbourhood.

“He pointed his gun with a bayonet at us and ordered us to hand him our money and mobile phones,” one of the victims told Radio Dabanga.

“When Jamal Andak protested, he stabbed him three times with his bayonet,” he said. “Andak died instantly, after which the attacker fled.”

Market

Five visitors and two RSF militiamen were injured in a fight at the market of Ed El Fursan in South Darfur.

The head of the Bani Halba tribe, El Tom Eisa Dabka, reported to this station that the reasons for the clash are not clear. “Suddenly the people were fighting and stabbing each other.”

He explained that the RSF men are wreaking havoc in the area since the government militia took over the Ed El Fursan base from the UN-AU peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (Unamid) in October last year. “The people living in the area protested but the RSF Deputy-Commander, Esam Fadil, replied that the Presidency gave him the right to take over the mission’s base.”

Unamid sites

In June last year, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2363 that renewed Unamid's mandate with another year, yet with a reduction of more than a third of the nearly 19,000 Unamid military troops and police officers present in Darfur.

The Mission's team sites are handed over to the Sudanese government or appropriate private parties as per lease agreements signed by the Mission, Unamid said in a press statement in September. 

Unamid responded to claims by Darfur rebel movements that it had handed its sites in El Malha and Mellit in North Darfur “to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) government militia”.

According to rebel movements, the agreement signed between Khartoum and Unamid on the reduction of the peacekeeping troops stipulates that any property left by the mission is should be handed to the local authorities, and is to be used for civilian purposes only.