Minister: ‘South Darfur camp murderers will not go unpunished’

Sudan’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Omar Manis, has vowed that the murderers of an omda and his brother in Kalma camp near the South Darfur capital of Nyala on Wednesday will be brought to justice. He also appealed to the public to cooperate with the government in its efforts to collect unauthorised weapons.

On Friday during the funeral ceremony in Nyala, Minister Manis stressed that the perpetrators would not escape justice. He also urged all Darfur people to cooperate with the government in its quest to collect unauthorised weapons and organise pasture routes and protect farmers.

During the memorial service, the deputy commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Abdelrahim Hamdan, said that the RSF would ensure that those responsible for the murder faced justice.

“We will not allow any infiltrator to destabilise security in Kalma camp”, he added. He said that the camp would not suffer any damage from reprisals by those who wanted to avenge the killing.

As reported by Radio Dabanga on Friday, Ali Dunkus, his brother Omda Taha Dunkus, and his cousin Ahmed Kazam were driving to Nyala, returning from their farms on Wednesday evening. While crossing Kalma, they lost their way. They were confronted by a group of men who first threw stones at the car and then opened fire, killing the Omda Dunkus and Kazam. Ali was injured.

‘Political motivation’

Maj Gen Hashim Khaled, the Governor of South Darfur, claims that the incident was “designed to abort the ongoing efforts of peace talks in Juba”. He also argued that “those responsible for the incident thought by doing so they would change the new UN Peace Mission’s mandate from UN Chapter VI to Chapter VII”.

He said that the incident occurred just as negotiating parties were close to signing a peace deal, “is not a coincidence,” he said. “Now it is the time to put an end to the vicious cycle of violence,” he concluded.

In a statement on Thursday, the UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur (Unamid) called for restraint and requested all parties to resort to legal means in dealing with this crime.

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