♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan
♦ West Darfur: Seven killed in mosque, protest erupts
24 May – 2016 EL GENEINA A child has succumbed to injuries he sustained during the shooting in a mosque in Azerni camp, West Darfur, on Sunday. His death raises the toll to 11.
The 14-year-old Juma Ismail Mohamed was buried next to the hospital in El Geneina, where the bodies of eight other displaced people were buried on Monday. Thousands of people accompanied the bodies as they were carried to El Geneina (video).
According to the first reports, two armed tribesmen on motorcycles arrived at Azerni camp on Sunday evening. One of the attackers opened fire inside the mosque in retaliation against the killing of one of their tribesmen near the market earlier that day. He killed six displaced people on the spot. Four people were wounded and 14-year-old Juma Ismail Mohamed was critically injured.
On Sunday night tribesmen raided several homes in Azerni, and shot and killed two brothers. Earlier that day motorcycle robbers, reportedly also members of the Abbala tribe, shot a Sudanese soldier dead near Azerni.
The local government has deployed military forces to control the situation. “But the soldiers do nothing,” a Sheikh in Azerni camp complained to Radio Dabanga. “They did not take action when armed tribesmen raided a village and stole livestock near the camp today.
On Tuesday, the family of the killed Abbala tribesman demanded from camp residents in Azerni to compensate for their loss and forced them to pay SDG219,000 ($35,740). “It is unacceptable what happens to these families; they are forced to pay blood money, while government officials have not said a word about the financial compensation for the displaced people,” the Sheikh said.
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Baby killed in South Kordofan bombing
23 May – 2016 HEIBAN An air raid by the Sudanese Air Force in Heiban in the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, resulted in the death of a baby on Monday. Six others were wounded, according to the armed rebels in the area.
Heiban, a village in the centre of South Kordofan, was bombed on 1 May. The killing of six children raised condemnations by hundreds of Sudanese civil society and opposition parties which signed a petition urging Khartoum to respond to this crime.
The bombing on Monday took place at 2pm, the SPLM-N military spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said in a statement. “Five barrel bombs killed a six-month-old baby, named Kocho John, and wounded six other people, including three children.” An obtained photo shows a seriously wounded woman and her children in Heiban before she is transferred to a health centre.
Government air raids on residential areas in the Nuba Mountains have claimed the lives of children in the past.
More highlights from Radio Dabanga Sudan:
Militiamen's road block causes water shortage in Sortony, North Darfur
May 23 – 2016 KABKABIYA A lack of water threatens the displaced people sheltering in Sortony, next to a Unamid base, where militia members have blocked the roads for people and transport for nearly three weeks. The Kabkabiya-Sortony road blockade entered its 17th day on Sunday…
Sudan ‘expels’ OCHA Head of Office
May 22 – 2016 KHARTOUM The Sudanese government has de facto expelled the Head of Office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) by refusing to renew his annual “stay permit” for another year. In a press statement today, the UN Humanitarian Country…
45,000 South Sudanese enter East Darfur in 2016: OCHA
May 22 – 2016 ED DAEIN Since late January 2016, there has been a surge in the number of South Sudanese fleeing into Sudan. As of 12 May, about 45,500 refugees had arrived in East Darfur, of who some 28,100 are in Khor Omer IDP camp, Ed Daein locality. According to a fact sheet by the UN …
Insecurity, Unamid exit concerns El Salam's displaced
May 20 – 2016 KALMA Displaced people in El Salam, a South Darfur camp, have informed the Sudanese government and Unamid about the lack of security outside the camp borders, the worsened food and health situation, and urged the UN-AU peacekeeping mission to remain in Sudan. “It is…
Khartoum protest: Woman suffocated by teargas
May 20 – 2016 KHARTOUM NORTH A woman died on Thursday due to suffocation by the teargas riot police used to disperse demonstrators in El Jiraif East, a neighbourhood in northern Khartoum. Hundreds of residents went out on the streets on Wednesday morning to demonstrate against the…
38 dead in West Kordofan tribal clash
May 19 – 2016 EL NAHUD A five-hour gun battle on Tuesday morning between tribal clans northeast of El Nahud in West Kordofan left 38 dead and many wounded. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the clashes erupted between the Awlad Sibeh and El Jamaniya of the Hamer tribe at Minegir and…
Rebels ‘repulse attacks’ in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains
May 19 – 2016 NUBA MOUNTAINS The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) claims to have repulsed two attacks by Sudanese government forces and allied militias on targets in Delling locality in the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan…
‘Sudan’s plan to privatise ports is dangerous’
May 19 – 2016 PORT SUDAN Economic expert Dr Sidgi Kaballo has called on the Sudanese people to resist the government’s intention to privatise sea ports, calling the scheme ‘dangerous’. In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Dr Kaballo called on the population to form committees to organise…
WFP, Swiss donors visit West Darfur camps
May 18 – 2016 EL GENEINA The Swiss Ambassador to Sudan, Martin Strub, and UN Word Food Programme (WFP) Sudan Country Director, Adnan Khan, visited selected project sites in the El Geneina camps for the displaced in West Darfur on Wednesday…
This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe to the newsletter here
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