Salamat: ‘Ali Kushayb tried to murder South Darfur cattle merchant’

The leadership of the Salamat tribe have accused former janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), of attempted murder, following the detention of a Salamat cattle merchant in South Darfur.

The undersecretary of the Salamat tribe, Jibril Hassan, told Radio Dabanga that cattle merchant Ali Osman Obeid was on the way from Um Dukhun to the state capital of Nyala with a large number of cattle for sale.

“He passed through Rahad El Berdi market to buy some necessities. There, Kushayb apprehended him and held him in an ammunition store of the Central Reserve Forces (known as Abu Tira) with the intention to kill him. The locality Commissioner intervened and released him.”

Hassan said the arrest of Obeid by Kushayb was because the merchant was living at El Deleiba village to the east of Rahad El Berdi before violence between the Salamat and Taisha tribes erupted in 2014. Obeid returned to Rahad El Berdi which is said to be a forbidden area for Salamat.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abdulrahman, commonly known as Ali Kushayb, was indicted by the ICC in 2007 for alleged crimes against civilians in Darfur during 2003 and 2004, accusing him of ordering killings, rapes, and looting.