Three people wounded in Central Darfur weapons search

Three people were seriously wounded in house-to-house searches by the paramilitary Rapid Support Force in Nierteti camp for displaced people in Central Darfur on Wednesday. In the past weeks, several Nierteti villagers have been detained for unknown reasons.

The raid on Wednesday morning in Nierteti camp was led by three officers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudanese soldiers carried out the raid under the command of a military lieutenant named Musab and police was also present at the scene, sheikhs reported to Radio Dabanga.

The joint force entered the northern Nierteti camp and conducted house-to-house searches and raided shops for three continuous hours, until 10am. “They found no weapons in the camp,” according to the sheikhs.

“After the searches the force accused the displaced people of supporting the rebels and hiding their weapons,” he said. A number of people were beaten, and three of them sustained serious injuries.

The three wounded have been taken to the hospital. Hassan Ahmed El Tahir was in a coma when he was transferred to Nierteti Hospital, a sheikh reported. Abdelrahman Abdelaziz, Mustafa Mohamed El Tahir and a woman who was not identified, were taken to the same hospital in a critical condition.

Large amounts of cash and mobile phones were seized, amounting to an estimated 100 phones. Victims have reported the incident to the police.

Weapons search in Tur

Another force of RSF, driving dozens of vehicles, searched the area of Tur in Nierteti for illegal weapons, starting at 3 pm on Wednesday.

Witnesses reported to Radio Dabanga that a number of residents were beaten by the paramilitary forces. “They stole goods in the town market and houses.”

A source said that the RSF was still in the area until late Wednesday.

Detainees released

During the past two weeks, the Military Intelligence unit in Nierteti detained 25 people, including a sheikh. A reason was not provided. On Wednesday the Military Intelligence released thirteen of the detainees.

Eight of the released people are from Garsila, four live in the northern Nierteti camp, and one person is from El Shabab. Twelve people remain in detention at the Nierteti military garrison, without their families or lawyers being allowed to visit them.

A source told this station that one of the detainees, named Mohamed Abaker, was beaten severely. The reason, according to the source, was that Abaker had a photograph on his phone of Amin El Toro, a ex-rebel leader who had signed an internal peace agreement with the government. El Toro died in a traffic accident in eastern Sudan last year.

Arms campaign

In the past weeks, people in Darfur repeatedly reported that soldiers of the RSF used violence while carrying out the collection campaign of illegal weapons in the region. The Sudanese government announced the campaign in July, to begin with in Darfur and Kordofan.

RSF and the army began collecting illegal arms and unlicensed vehicles from civilians in the regions the following month. The campaign has entered the stage of compulsory collection of weapons by the reinforcements of RSF and the Sudanese army. In North Darfur alone, 12,500 RSF and police have been deployed to assist with the arms collection and the controls of unregistered vehicles.