Militiamen extort displaced farmer in Saraf Umra, North Darfur

A resident of El Jebel camp for the displaced in Saraf Umra, North Darfur, was forced to pay SDG10,000 ($1,680) on Saturday, as compensation for his alleged killing of a cow last week.
Sheikh Abdelrazig Yousef Suleiman, coordinator of the Saraf Umra camps, reported to Radio Dabanga that four militiamen, two of them wearing uniforms of the Central Reserve Police (locally known as Abu Tira) and two in civilian clothes, came to El Jebel camp on Saturday.

A resident of El Jebel camp for the displaced in Saraf Umra, North Darfur, was forced to pay SDG10,000 ($1,680) on Saturday, as compensation for his alleged killing of a cow last week.

Sheikh Abdelrazig Yousef Suleiman, coordinator of the Saraf Umra camps, reported to Radio Dabanga that four militiamen, two of them wearing uniforms of the Central Reserve Police (locally known as Abu Tira) and two in civilian clothes, came to El Jebel camp on Saturday.

“Those Janjaweed ordered Mohamed Suleiman Khamees to pay blood money for a dead cow they had put behind his farmland at Wadi Kulkul, east of the camp, last week,” he said.

“They made him pay half of the amount on Saturday, and threatened to kill him and take over his his land cultivated with onions and his guava and lemon orchards, if he does not pay the rest within two weeks.”

The camp coordinator condemned the threats, and demanded the North Darfur authorities to “put an end to such violations”.