North Darfur: Activists criticise state security response to deadly attacks

Local activists lambasted the North Darfur State Security Committee statement concerning the recent incidents in Kutum, which left seven people dead earlier this week.

In the contentious statement made yesterday by the security committee, Siham Hasan, an activist in the area, told Radio Dabanga that the committee deliberately evaded “known and documented facts”.

The state security statement condemned the events that took place on Monday and confirmed that forces would be deployed to the scene in order to “impose the rule of law”.

Mohamed Abdallah Khareef, the Executive Director of Kutum, described the current situation in the area as being under control, adding that “talk of displacements due to these events were rumours from social media”.

Revenge attack

Gunmen killed at least nine people, and wounded and abducted at least nine others, in an apparent revenge attack spanning seven villages in Kutum locality, North Darfur, on Monday.

People told Radio Dabanga that Monday’s deadly attack was a retaliation for two other killings committed by unknown suspects earlier on Monday in Senana village. In response, relatives of the two people killed boarded a number of vehicles, motorcycles, and horses, and headed for a number of villages 30 kilometres north of Kutum town, they said.

After reaching the village of Malaagat, the gunmen began shooting people inside its main marketplace killing at least nine. The attackers then entered and torched six other nearby villages, kidnapping a further nine people. These villages included Senana and Kornaga, which were entirely burnt down during the attack, and also Um Kateera and Hillet El Faki, which were partially burnt down.

So far, seven of the nine people killed during the attack have been named. These include Osman Abakar, Khadija Hammad, Ahmed Ishag Babiker, Amin Suleiman, Hafar Yagoub and Ibrahim Abboud. Dozens of people have fled the area and three of the injured are being treated at Kutum hospital.