Abducted Darfur ten-year-old escapes after two years in militia captivity

06/06/2013 20:42

A ten-year-old boy from the Habbaniya tribe has escaped from an armed militia group, two years after being abducted.Ali Haroun Sayf Al Din, from the area of Wad Hajam in South Darfur, approached the police in Tawila near El Fasher in North Darfur, claiming to have spent two years tending the livestock of his captors.Ali told Radio Dabanga that he was abducted along with five other children as they were tending their grazing cattle in 2011. “They kept us for two years. I had to walk with them whenever they moved. Then I ran away then handed myself to the police,” he said, recalling that one of his captors is called Hamid Daoud and another, Hussein Alrayyeh.He has been placed in the care of the omda of Tawila, Musa Mukhtar Yusuf, who told Radio Dabanga that he is attempting to reunite the child with his family.“Ali’s father’s name is Haroun Sayf Al Din, from Wad Hjam area in South Darfur.” Omda Yusuf appealed through Radio Dabanga for Ali’s parents to come forward and fetch him in Tawila.File photo: 18 February 2012. Turba village (North Darfur) was inhabited by then by 500 people, all of them from Zaghawa tribe. This community moved from the deep desert fifty years ago due to the lack of resources, basically water (Albert Gonzalez Farran/Unamid)

A ten-year-old boy from the Habbaniya tribe has escaped from an armed militia group, two years after being abducted.

Ali Haroun Sayf Al Din, from the area of Wad Hajam in South Darfur, approached the police in Tawila near El Fasher in North Darfur, claiming to have spent two years tending the livestock of his captors.

Ali told Radio Dabanga that he was abducted along with five other children as they were tending their grazing cattle in 2011. “They kept us for two years. I had to walk with them whenever they moved. Then I ran away then handed myself to the police,” he said, recalling that one of his captors is called Hamid Daoud and another, Hussein Alrayyeh.

He has been placed in the care of the omda of Tawila, Musa Mukhtar Yusuf, who told Radio Dabanga that he is attempting to reunite the child with his family.

“Ali’s father’s name is Haroun Sayf Al Din, from Wad Hjam area in South Darfur.” Omda Yusuf appealed through Radio Dabanga for Ali’s parents to come forward and fetch him in Tawila.

File photo: 18 February 2012. Turba village (North Darfur) was inhabited by then by 500 people, all of them from Zaghawa tribe. This community moved from the deep desert fifty years ago due to the lack of resources, basically water (Albert Gonzalez Farran/Unamid)