♦ 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
♦ 'Human trafficking crimes increasing in eastern Sudan'
August 20 – 2017 PORT SUDAN / KASSALA / WAD MADANI Residents of Red Sea state in eastern Sudan reported an increase in crimes concerning refugees and asylum seekers, including kidnappings, in the region. “The number of abductions for ransom is rapidly increasing in eastern Sudan,” listener Ali Muneeb told Radio Dabanga. “The number of unlicensed vehicles and motorcycles without plates is growing accordingly” he said. “Some of these vehicles belong to the regular forces, while other cars have been smuggled into the country from neighbouring countries, such as the Boko Haram vehicles from Libya and Chad.”
Last week, an Eritrean refugee was kidnapped in Kassala. “A few days later, they phoned us and demanded a ransom of more than SDG 3,500 ($521) for her release,” a relative told this station. “We have begun to collect the amount from our relatives around the world.”
The police of Kassala, El Gedaref, and El Gezira held a coordination meeting in Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, on Wednesday. The spokesman for the El Gezira state police, Brig. Hatem Osman, reported that during a combing campaign in the El Butana plains in neighbouring El Gedaref earlier this year, the state police held 75 human traffickers, cattle thieves, and arms dealers.
According to the UN Refugee agency (UNHCR), Sudan is one of the main transit countries of eastern Africans who want to travel to Europe by sea.
♦ 42 cholera dead in South Darfur camp
August 22 – 2017 DARFUR / RED SEA / SENNAR Reports of cholera infections arrived from various towns and camps for displaced people in Sudan this week. Between June and August, 42 people have died of cholera in Kalma camp in South Darfur, where 539 others have been infected. In Murnei camp in West Darfur, fifteen people died of cholera between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The coordinator of Kalma camp, Yagoub Abdallah Furi, to Radio Dabanga: “There are three medical isolation centres belonging to two organisations from the United States that have been established in the camp since cholera broke out here in June.” For the current 37 hospitalised cases in isolation, there is a large shortage of intravenous solutions. Meanwhile the epidemic reached Manawashi (north of Nyala city) in the beginning of August.
In Murnei camp, West Darfur, fifteen people died of cholera while 18 others have been infected in three days. “Eighteen people are now in the isolation ward in the camp.” As for the hospital of Singa, capital of Sennar state, four new cases of cholera were recorded on Saturday. Also a health centre in Arayab area in Ganab, Red Sea state, received five children suffering from cholera on Wednesday.
In early August, representatives of the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and other humanitarian agencies of the United Nations went to Central Darfur to report on gaps in the 'acute watery diarrhoea' response activities. “Humanitarian access and insecurity remain major challenges for the implementation of key health and protection interventions in the area,” OCHA reported in its latest biweekly bulletin.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
Resigned Darfuri students return, university dispute endures
August 22 – 2017 EL DUWEIM The case of hundreds of students from Darfur who resigned en masse from their university in White Nile state, with 14 dismissed students…
People in Sudan’s capital are queueing again for bread
August 21 – 2017 KHARTOUM Large areas of Khartoum state have been suffering from a shortage of bread for more than a week…
Northern Sudan: ‘More than 60,000 palm trees lost in three years’
August 20 – 2017 NORTHERN STATE In recent years, many palm tree plantations in Sudan’s Northern State burned to the ground. Though activists…
Man killed, girl gang-raped in Darfur
August 20 – 2017 KUTUM / HIJEIR TONO On Thursday, militants shot a construction worker dead in North Darfur. A displaced girl was raped and abducted…
Heavy rains kill two boys, destroy 80 homes in Darfur
August 20 – 2017 NIERTETI / ZAMZAM Two boys died in heavy rainfall that hit Central and North Darfur on Thursday. At least 80 displaced families in Nierteti…
Unamid leaves base in North Darfur’s El Malha
August 20 – 2017 EL FASHER Unamid has officially handed its team site in El Malha locality in North Darfur to the Sudanese government on Wednesday…
UN High Commissioner concludes Sudan visit
August 17 – 2017 KHARTOUM / EAST DARFUR The Sudan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Ghandour on Wednesday received the visiting United…
Musa Hilal: ‘Darfur Border Guards will not integrate with RSF’
August 17 – 2017 DARFUR Musa Hilal, head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, and chief of the Mahameed clan, has strongly defended the Darfuri…
Mixed feelings over arms collection in Sudan’s West Kordofan
August 17 – 2017 WEST KORDOFAN The residents of West Kordofan have greeted the decision by Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir to collect weapons…
Four die in raid on North Darfur village
August 16 – 2017 TAWILA Four people, including two women, were wounded in an armed attack by herders on Bambani village, 15 km west of Katur in Tawila…
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