Darfur’s militiamen beat women, shoot man near camps

Separate armed attacks in the Darfur region on Sunday and Monday have caused the injuries of at least three people, along with the theft of another vehicle in Nyala.

Militiamen attacked thirteen displaced women, 10 km north of Kabkabiya in North Darfur, and subjected them to severe whipping on Sunday. One of the women in Sorondi area is in serious condition.

A sheikh in El Salam camp for the internally displaced people told Radio Dabanga that the women were collecting firewood when the militiamen, riding on camels, attacked. They carried whips, which they used for beating them. Maryam Mohamed Adam was taken in a coma to the Unamid clinic in Kabkabiya.

One of the pro-government militia members near Kendebe in West Darfur shot and seriously wounded a displaced man on Monday. The coordinator of the Sirba camps told Radio Dabanga that Abakar Mohamed Ibrahim was shot while he was debating on one of the squares next to the camp, about the boycott of the election.

“A pro-government militiaman then accused him of belonging to the armed [rebel] movements, shot him with two bullets with a rifle, wounding his stomach,” the coordinator said. People have transferred him to a hospital in Kendebe, and then to El Geneina hospital as he was in a critical condition.

Car robbery

Militiamen in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, hijacked a vehicle that belongs to the electricity corporation. One employee was injured.

A witness reported to Radio Dabanga that pro-government militiamen in a Land Cruiser stopped an emergency night patrol vehicle of El Wadi district’s electricity corporation. When the workers refused to step out of the vehicle, the gunmen opened fire on their vehicle. This resulted in the wounding of one of them. The shooters took the vehicle and fled.

Several security measures were issued by Governor Maj. Gen. Adam Mahmoud Jarelnabi in July 2014 to combat the rampant insecurity and robberies in Nyala. However, the measures need to be reconsidered and extended, according to the state's Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago, in response to recent robberies of vehicles (including those of United Nations’ organisations), phones and money in the state capital.