‘Banditry upsurge in Central Darfur’ following police station closures

In three separate incidents reported around the town of Mukjar in Central Darfur on Tuesday, gunmen shot and injured a displaced man, six sheep were stolen from another house, and a third resident was robbed at gunpoint of two tins of oil. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that gunmen shot and wounded Nasser Adam Adam Rihimtalla after entering his home. Sources say these incidents are a result of a decision by the State Security Committee on Monday to withdraw police stations from the neighbourhoods to the headquarters in Mukjar.The decision was apparently prompted following an armed raid on a police station in the locality last Wednesday, in which, as previously reported by Radio Dabanga, Officer Osman Fadel Ismail, was killed and all arms and ammunition in the station were stolen. The residents made an appeal to Unamid to run patrols for the protection of displaced people in Mukjar. File photo by Albert González Farran/UNAMID Related: Gunmen shoot husband, wife in Central Darfur village (9 July 2013) Officer killed in ‘militia arms raid’ on Central Darfur police station (5 July 2013)