Angry protests follow deadly West Darfur market attack

One person died and five others were seriously injured after a group of armed men opened fire in the market of Foro Baranga in West Darfur on Saturday morning. Witnesses report that Ammar Abdelmajid (25) was killed in front of his shop. Angry residents have torched shops and offices and blocked roads in the town in protest against ongoing insecurity.

A community leader told the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that the injured were transferred to the Foro Baranga Rural Hospital to receive treatment. The director of Foro Baranga locality, Siddig Ibrahim, was informed of the incident as soon as it occurred, and was called on to contain the situation and to arrest the perpetrators on his capacity as the head of the locality’s security committee.

Hundreds of residents of gathered in protest against the violence, and closed the main roads in the town. Protestors reportedly burned a number of shops in the market. The Foro Baranga locality administrative offices, the Zakat (Muslim charity) chamber and the tax office were torched and burned to the ground. Private property has also been damaged.

The information received from Foro Baranga via SUNA indicates that the local security committee has deployed security forces at the area of the market and the main streets to contain the situation.

The security committee also made contact with representatives of the Forces for Freedom and Change and the notables in the area toward containing the situation and searching for solutions and to restore the rule of rule Law.

Lawlessness

As reported by Radio Dabanga last week, the markets of El Zariba, El Jamarik, El Aradeiba, and El Soug El Arabi in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina, have been closed at night due to ongoing lawlessness and security incidents. One of the merchants told Radio Dabanga that the authorities informed them to close in the evening “because of the lawlessness and chaos”.

It has been over a month since the last wave of violence engulfed El Geneina. In April, at least 144 people died and more than 233 were wounded when violence erupted after two Masalit tribesmen were killed by Arab tribesmen. “Driving through the Hay El Jebel neighbourhood of El Geneina is like driving through a ghost town,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wrote in a statement.