Residents believe spotting ‘Mali militants’ in C. Darfur towns

Masked gunmen who onlookers believe to be Islamist fighters fleeing northern Mali were spotted in two different towns of Central Darfur this week.  Locals were “afraid to approach” the men, who were wearing different clothing, spoke a different language and were carrying different kinds of weapons, they said.“Unfamiliar militants” reportedly arrived on Tuesday in the towns of Soulma and Sure located northeast of the capital of Umm Dukhun locality. They were driving 10 Land Cruisers mounted with heavy weapons, eyewitnesses told Radio Dabanga. On Wednesday and Thursday, two vehicles loaded with Dushkas belonging to the militants’ convoy were seen at the Umm Dukhun’s city market when some of the alleged militants went shopping. The first reports about the presence of Islamist militants from Mali in Sudan emerged in the beginning of February from several eyewitnesses in Kutum, North Darfur. Darfur rebel groups accused Khartoum of recruiting insurgents to fight in the Darfur war, a claim the government denies. The Sudanese foreign minister, in a recent meeting in Paris with his French counterpart, vowed Sudan was “ready to cooperate” in the fight against Mali fighters if it received information about these groups in Darfur.Radio Dabanga file photo: Darfur villageRelated: France and Sudan discuss Mali rebels in Darfur (28 February 2013)