♦ 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
♦ Deadly church attack in capital 'isolated incident': Sudan FM
April 7 – 2017 OMDURMAN A church elder was killed, a teacher wounded, and 13 protesters arrested in a police raid on an Evangelical Church school in Omdurman last week. The US Embassy in Khartoum has said it is “deeply saddened by the organised, violent attack on April 3 against church members and school teachers".
A long-lasting dispute over the church's management escalated in the deadly police raid, one of the church elders told Radio Dabanga last week. The raid interrupted a demonstration the youth and members of the church staged to reject investment plans for the land. "The police later returned with a group that signed the contract to the site. One of them stabbed Yunan Abdallah to death and seriously wounded another who was transferred to hospital."
In a press statement on Thursday, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry expressed condolence to the family of elder Abdallah. He said that the incident “was an individual and isolated one and will not affect the freedom of religion".
The freedom for Christians was questioned during in a visit by the European Union Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Sudan mid-March. He brought the demolition of churches in the country up for discussion with Sudanese ministers.
♦ 'Tense' West Darfur camp after police shoot women, child
April 11 – 2017 EL GENEINA The situation in the area of Kerending camp for the displaced near El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, remains tense after government forces torched the camp market and shot at protesting camp residents on Sunday. Two women and a child were killed.
The problems started when the Commissioner of El Geneina announced the relocation of the camp's market, early last week. The displaced people have strongly opposed the idea.
Witnesses told this station that police and security forces started a fire in the market stalls after the Commissioner ordered them to start the removal by force. Angered camp residents held a protest march while others set fire to the police post and a number of locality buildings. Provoked, the government forces started to shoot at the protesters, according to a witness. Two women and a child were fatally hit. Nine others sustained injuries.
A camp elder reported yesterday that a community and seven others who were detained during the camp protests , have been released. “But the situation, despite the relative calm, remains tense, as the people are still extremely angry about what happened.”
The Government of Sudan said it will form a committee to investigate the incidents between police forces and camp residents.
More highlights from Radio Dabanga:
Cholera continues to claim victims in Sudan’s El Gedaref
April 9 – 2017 EL GEDAREF Another cholera patient died in eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref state last week. “One person died of cholera, and four new cases were reported in the area of Shueib in Gireisha locality on Thursday and Friday,” a…
East Darfur tribal fighting leaves seven dead
April 9 – 2017 ED DAEIN Seven tribesmen were killed and four others sustained injuries in clashes between Ma’aliya and Rizeigat in East Darfur on Saturday. After the East Darfur government deployed buffer forces in the area of…
Bombing reported in Darfur's Jebel Marra
April 7 – 2017 DERIBAT On Thursday afternoon, a Sudanese Air Force plane dropped three explosive barrels west of Deribat in Jebel Marra, without causing any human casualties. The three barrel bombs hit the area of Logi and…
'23 dead' in South Darfur camps lacking medicine
April 7 – 2017 NYALA More than twenty people died of unknown disease in Otash and Kalma camps near Nyala in the past two weeks. Most of the victims are children and elderly people. A sheikh in Otash camp for displaced…
'EU-Sudan migration cooperation legitimises militia state': Enough
April 6 – 2017 WASHINGTON The European Union migration mitigation programme is supporting Sudan's “Border Control from Hell”, says Enough Project, which has closely followed the Sudanese militia assigned to control the…
April 6 – 2017 LONDON The torture of two journalists abducted en route to Jebel Marra, in Sudan’s Darfur region, is not only a grave affront to press freedom, but also proof the Sudanese authorities have something to hide in the region…
New Unamid head: Darfur fighting ‘considerably diminished’
April 5 – 2017 NEW YORK “The Darfur of today is a very different place from what the region was in 2003, when the armed conflict began,” Jeremiah Mamabolo, the new Joint Special Representative for Darfur and head of the UN hybrid…
This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe to the newsletter here
and then