Militias fleeing S Darfur battle ‘kill 3 displaced on the way’

Pro-government militias fleeing armed hostilities against rebels in South Darfur have killed three displaced persons during their escape, multiple sources said. They added “government troops” have been shelling villages south of the state’s capital. A spokesman for the displaced of camp El Salam, hard hit by militias’ attacks in the last days, said the “defeated” gunmen crossed the site when fleeing the battlefield and plundered “everything they came across”. Besides the three dead, Hussein Abu Sharati said, three people were injured. Violent clashes occurred on Friday in Abga Radji Biaman, Bielel locality, between the rebel group Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) and government forces supported by militias, it was reported. The displaced killed by militias are Issa Mohamed Ishaq, Mohamed Yahya and Mohamed Juma, the spokesman said. He added the injured are called Adam Hamid, Mohamed Hamed Suleiman and Abdullah Nair. Due to the recent fighting, the security situation in the area has tremendously decreased, Abu Sharati said. He claimed government troops are dropping bombs on villages south of Nyala “inciting terror and fear” among displaced and residents of the state’s capital. Traders of Bielel markets located near the battlefield closed their shops in fear the militias would also attack them.   Road closed Kheder Mohamed Ali, spokesman of the refugee and displaced association of South Darfur, confirmed the occurrence of fierce battles between rebels and government troops south of Nyala and in the Kashalango area. He also confirmed that runway militias killed three displaced of El Salam and injured another three, providing Radio Dabanga the same names other sources have, as stated above. Residents of Nyala, Ali continued, claim to hear sounds of gunshots and bombings alike displaced from nearby camps. The road between El Salam and Nyala remains closed and the situation at the camp is “very bad” as a result of the presence of militias in the site, he said. Ali fears the recent events may lead to a new wave of displacement from the El Salam camp and questioned where the displaced would go to, when speaking to Radio Dabanga. He called UNAMID to protect displaced people “from the oppression by pro-government militias”.Photo by Olivier Chassot/ UNAMIDRelated: ‘260 Sudan soldiers, militias killed’ in fresh S Darfur clashes –rebels (15 March 2013)