Four lorries hijacked in North Darfur

Militiamen in uniform ambushed four lorries in North Darfur on Thursday. They robbed the passengers of all their belongings, including large amounts of gold. Mohamed Ahmed Minawi, member of the North Darfur parliament for northern Kutum, reported to Radio Dabanga that a group of armed men, wearing uniforms of the Central Reserve Police (known as Abu Tira) in two Land Cruisers intercepted a convoy of four lorries in the area of ​​Um Sidir. The convoy was on its way from El Fasher to Tina. “They unloaded the passengers, and took the vehicles to the Sisi Khamis streambed, along with drivers Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel Rahman, Omar Burma, and Adam Saleh. There they searched the cargo. In the luggage of one of the passengers, they found gold with an estimated value of SDG450,000 ($78,500), in the bag of another passenger 960 grams of gold. The cargo also contained a valuable metal-locating device, worth SDG30,000 ($5,230).” The North Darfuri MP said that an ad hoc formed mediation committee contacted the robbers, who demand SDG15,000 ($2,615) for the release of each lorry.  File photo: A convoy of lorries in Darfur (Albert González Farran/Unamid)