Robberies cause insecurity in lawless North Darfur town

The insecurity in Kutum locality, North Darfur, continues unabated, owing to armed groups and militia members who are using the state of lawlessness to rob and abduct people.

Pro-government militiamen have abducted a fuel merchant from inside Kutum town on Tuesday evening.

A witness told Radio Dabanga that at 6pm, a group of pro-government militiamen in a Land Cruiser obstructed the merchant, named Abdallah Mustafa Abdallah, on the road between Kutum market and his house.

They pulled him over, tied him up and took him to an unknown destination, according to the witness.

In another event in Kutum, an armed group pillaged the house of a man named Ibrahim Mohamed Dosa to steal his motorcycle. A woman who happened to be in the house tried to stop the gunmen from taking the motorcycle. One of the men shot her in both her legs. The woman has been taken to a hospital for treatment.

Also on Tuesday, another group of militiamen broke into three shops and stole goods.

Witnesses attributed the chaos and the high rate of attacks on people inside Kutum to the lack of security. The pro-government militiamen have been given the free hand to do what they want, they said.

For more than three years, policemen, prosecutors, and members of the judiciary, are absent in the locality. The army is officially in charge of keeping order instead.