On Sunday, three villagers, taken hostage by militiamen in Tawila locality, North Darfur, were released after intervention of the authorities and local leaders.<\/p>\n
Militant herders, under command of the notorious militia commander Badur Abu Kineish, had taken three men from Hillet Hajar, located 7 km west of Tawila, as hostage for 117 cows they claimed were lost. They gave the villagers ten days to return the cattle.<\/p>\n
“A decisive meeting was arranged on Friday at the Unamid base near Tawila town,” Omda Mukhtar Bosh of the Rwanda camp for the displaced reported to Radio Dabanga.<\/p>\n
Militia leaders, headed by Kineish, commanders of the Central Reserve Police (known as Abu Tira), army and security officers, and the commissioner of Tawila locality, El Hadi Abdelrahman Abulbashar, attended the meeting. They decided that the villagers had to pay SDG950,000 ($165,500) for the missing cows, and SDG150,000 ($26,000) as compensation for “the losses”.<\/p>\n
After an advance payment of SDG45,000 ($7,850), the hostages, Omda Ismail Hary, Hussein Sharafeldin, and Younes Osman Mohamed, were released. Omda Hary was taken to a hospital in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, for treatment of his broken hand.<\/p>\n