Kordofan, Darfur shootings leave seven dead

Seven people including two children have died and at least five others were injured in a series of attacks by armed men on villages in South Kordofan, as well as West and South Darfur.

Two boys were killed in a shooting in El Hedara, in the south of Um Heitan in Dalami, South Kordofan, on Saturday.

Abdelrahim Kounda reported that witnesses from the village said that El Nayer El Zein (8) and Hammad Ahmed (7) were shot dead by armed men as they herded a flock of sheep. They both died in instantly, while the gunmen fled.

The villagers formed a search posse to track down the perpetrators. The area witnessed the theft of 29 cows before the governor of South Kordofan intervened and formed a committee from the people of Um Heitan to retrieve the stolen cows. Nine cows were recovered.

Darfur violence

The High Nomads Coordination Office in West Darfur reported that two people were killed and five others were injured in an attack by gunmen near Um Kharouba in the area of Seleia in Jebel Moon, north of El Geneina, also on Saturday.

The coordination said in a statement yesterday that the attackers, driving a number of four-wheel drive vehicles, also killed livestock. The gunmen opened fire on herders who tried to defend their animals and Hamdan Wadaa and Saddam Hamdan died in the firefight. The statement demanded that the nomads and all their possessions be protected. The state’s security services also demanded rapid intervention and rescue of people.

In a separate incident, two brothers were killed in Misterei, south of El Geneina, by gunmen on Saturday. In a statement, the Mahameed (a sub-clan of the Rizeigat) High Coordinating Committee accused paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of setting up an ambush that led to the killing of the two brothers, Bashir and Hamdan Khamees. The statement condemned the attack, calling on the central government in Khartoum, the Darfur regional government, and its security committee to prosecute the perpetrators.

Farmer Abdelazim Bakheet (39) died on Sunday of his wounds in an armed robbery in the village of Um Karfa, eight kilometres east of Gireida in South Darfur. Mohamed Mousa said that gunmen attacked the victim in the village of Um Karfa with the motive of stealing livestock, and when he woke up, they shot him, wounding him in the chest and abdomen.

The gunmen stole three cows. A force from the Gireida police and the army has set out to search for the culprits and the stolen cows.