Soldier shoots woman dead in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains

A tea seller was killed by a soldier of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in Dalami in South Kordofan on Tuesday. The incident was reported to the police but they did not take any action.

The Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) reported in an Urgent Appeal yesterday that coffee and tea seller Noura Fadul shot dead by an armed SAF soldier on September 1.

Fadul was serving two customers at her shop in Dalami, when the soldier came in and ordered coffee. He insisted to be served before the other customers but the tea seller did not comply with his request.

He responded by immediately shooting at her. The seven bullets that hit her chest and abdomen killed her instantly.

The soldier then fled to the military base of Dalami, HUDO said.

Relatives reported the case to the police who did not move. The commander of the army garrison did not hand over the soldier to the police either, which caused tension between the residents of the town and the military.

The human rights organisation expressed its serious concern about the behaviour of SAF soldiers and militiamen in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and calls upon the Sovereign Council, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defence, and the South Kordofan governor to “immediately investigate this murder case,” and “hold to account the SAF commandant in Dalami and to hand over the culprit to the police”.

The authorities should further address the insecurity in the Nuba Mountains, and ensure that the safety of civilians in conflict areas is guaranteed.

In late July, HUDO urged the government in Khartoum to lift the State of Emergency in southern Sudan.

The organisation attributes the continuation of attacks on residents and displaced people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state to the lack of change in the country’s peripheries after the ousting of President Al Bashir in April last year. It said that the visibility of the transitional government is generally limited to Khartoum.

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