PDF guard injured in North Darfur farm attack

A Popular Defence Force (PDF) member was beaten with rifle butts and seriously injured while guarding farmers near to Tawila in North Darfur on Friday.

Omda Mukhtar Bosh told Radio Dabanga that a group of pro-government militiamen, some driving a Land Cruiser and others riding camels and horses, tried to prevent nearly 1,000 people from tilling their lands at Sigilli gate south of Tawila in North Darfur.

The militiamen told the farmers, who were being guarded by PDF members, to return to where they came from. When the farmers refused, they beat a PDF guard with rifle butts and seriously injured him.

Omda Bosh said that the commander of the army garrison of Tawila was informed. He sent two vehicles, and some of the militiamen fled when they arrived. However, some militiamen defied the army, camped out in the area, and prevented people from farming.

Prospector robbed

On Friday morning, gold prospector Ali Ahmed Mohammed of camp Kassab in Kutum locality was seriously injured and robbed of a device for gold detection.

A witness told Radio Dabanga that at 8 am on Friday, two militiamen riding motorcycles attacked the prospector while he was looking for gold north of camp Kassab. They shot him in the abdomen and shoulder before robbing him of the gold detection device in his possession. He was transferred in to Kutum hospital serious condition.