Paramilitaries ambush convoy in Darfur’s East Jebel Marra

Members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reportedly ambushed a convoy of three passenger lorries near El Melem in East Jebel Marra locality on Saturday.
The commercial vehicles were on their way from the Rakona market in East Jebel Marra to El Fasher, when a large group of RSF paramilitaries halted them by force of arms.
“The militiamen riding in seven Land Cruisers intercepted us and took the three vehicles with dozens of passengers to the area of El Melem, and ordered us to unload the goods we were carrying with us,” a trader told Radio Dabanga on Sunday.

Members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reportedly ambushed a convoy of three passenger lorries near El Melem in East Jebel Marra locality on Saturday.

The commercial vehicles were on their way from the Rakona market in East Jebel Marra to El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, when a group of RSF paramilitaries in seven Land Cruisers halted them by force of arms.

“The militiamen intercepted us and took the three vehicles with dozens of passengers to the area of El Melem, and ordered us to unload the goods we were carrying with us,” a trader told Radio Dabanga on Sunday.

“They beat us and stripped us of all our money and mobile telephones, and released the vehicles,” he reported. “Yet they kept passengers Adam Lemoun Ayoub, Mousa Ibrahim Bakheet, Yousef El Hajer Ahmed, Abdelkarim Gamareldin, and Mohamed Ali Shogar as hostages.”