♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

♦ Unrest in West Darfur capital: nine civilians killed

11 January – 2016 EL GENEINA On Monday morning security forces in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, fired on a group of people carrying the bodies of six villagers who were killed on Sunday. Three mourners at the funeral were fatally hit, including a 13-year-old boy, multiple witnesses told Radio Dabanga. Nine people were already killed during militia attacks and a protest against the insecurity in the area.

The UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur (Unamid) expressed its concerns about the “continuous unrest and sporadic firing across El Geneina and in Mouli” on Monday. The previous day, people from the southern Mouli took to the streets of the state capital to protest the rampant insecurity in the area. The number of protesters grew as El Geneina residents joined them. They set fire to a government building and stormed the Governor's residence. Police and security agents fired at the crowd with live ammunition, an eyewitness reported. A person from Mouli was killed and two others sustained serious injuries. That same morning, militiamen stormed Mouli and killed two villagers, accusing them of killing one of their comrades. They later intercepted a group from Mouli that was on its way to join the protest march. A fight erupted in which three villagers and three militiamen were killed.

In Khartoum on Monday, the Minister of Justice decided to form an inquiry commission to probe the incidents. Meanwhile the father of 13-year-old Adam Mohamed Sharif told Radio Dabanga that his son was walking along the mourners on their way to the cemetery on Monday whenmilitary troops shot at them. “Sharif was hit in his abdomen and died almost instantly.” Mubarak Mohamed Yagoub was among the residents of El Geneina who joined the protest by people from Mouli on Sunday, his brother said a day later. “The police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. The security troops used live bullets, and shot dead my brother.”

For photos and video footage of Sunday's protest, click here

♦ 'Dismantling camps is a crime': Darfur displaced, activists

January 12 – 2016 NYALA / KHARTOUM A conference of displaced people in Kalma camp near Nyala, South Darfur on 5 January, have categorically rejected plans by the Sudanese government to dismantle camps in Darfur.

Sudan’s Second Vice-President Hassabo Abdelrahman said two weeks ago that the Sudanese government intends to end the displacement in Darfur before 2017, by resettling the people who now live in camps or by the voluntary return of these displaced to their home areas. This will be implemented within 50 days.

According to Sudan Democracy First Group, Abdelrahman's deadline of 50 days for the voluntary returns “reveals a rush” to dismantle the camps prior to a referendum that decides on the administrative status of Darfur's states in April 2016. 'It is not in the ruling party’s best interest to allow the referendum to take place in conditions which would reflect the real will of the Darfuri people,' the activist group claimed in an article today. Forcibly relocating the displaced people might alter the demographic composition in a region, allowing the regime to manipulate the outcome of the referendum.

Last week, however, the conferees in Nyala affirmed that displaced people and refugees will not voluntarily return to their villages before achieving their well-known demands: Disarmament of the militias, expulsion of new settlers, individual and collective compensation, return of the villages to their owners. Head Sheikh at the conference, Abdelrahman Ali El Tahir told Radio Dabanga that the displaced also called for the change of the mandate of Unamid troops “from peacekeeping to peace making, because there is no peace on the ground to keep”.

Displaced people in camps around Darfur commented to Radio Dabanga that they reject the government's re-planning and voluntary returning. The Coordinator of the Central Darfur camps said that “villages from which they have been displaced are now occupied by new settlers”. The station reported a similar story from East Jebel Marra on 6 January, where militant new settlers have occupied over 20 villages for a full year and prevent the former residents from returning. 

Other news highlights:

Gunmen attack soldiers, scare town in Central Darfur

January 12 – 2016 DELEIG Clashes between a militia and military forces in Deleig, Central Darfur, resulted in the killing of one militia member and the wounding of another on Sunday. The attackers directed their anger against…

Three raped in Darfur's East Jebel Marra

January 10 – 2016 EAST JEBEL MARRA A group of gunmen raped three young women in Tawila locality, North Darfur, popularly known as East Jebel Marra, today. “The women, aged 18, 22, and 23, left Argotugo village in the…

'Barrel bombs destroy farms in Sudan's Blue Nile state'

January 10 – 2016 KURMUK / ED DAMAZIN An Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force bombed the area of Kurmuk in the south-eastern part of Blue Nile on Saturday. More than 1,300 government troops were reportedly killed in Blue…

Sudan proposes resumption of Unamid exit talks

January 10 – 2016 KHARTOUM Sudan has proposed to resume discussions on the exit strategy for the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur (Unamid) by the end of this month in Addis Ababa. FA Minister Ibrahim Ghandour met…

'Sudan, Egypt have to accept Ethiopian Renaissance Dam': expert

January 10 – 2016 KHARTOUM The Grand Renaissance Dam currently being built at the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia has become a reality that Sudan and Egypt have to live with, says Dr Salman Mohamed Salman, expert…

Rebel leader mocks Sudan's ceasefire extension

January 8 – 2016 PARIS President Omar Al Bashir’s extension of the government's unilateral ceasefire for a month in the war-torn regions of Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile is only a cover for new fighting, says Dr Jibril Ibrahim…

Unamid convoy ambushed in Kutum, North Darfur

January 7 – 2016 KUTUM A Unamid patrol was ambushed today by an unidentified armed group in Kutum locality. In a press statement, Unamid reported that the attack to place near Anka village, approximately 55 kilometres north of…

524 suspected dengue fever cases in Sudan

January 6 – 2016 SUDAN According to the Sudanese Ministry of Health, a total of 523 suspected dengue fever cases, including 104 deaths, were reported in Sudan between 29 August (when the outbreak started) and 18 December. In…

This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe to the newsletter here