Riot, arson at North Darfur’s Kalma camp after youth slain

The killing of a 20-year-old man outside Kalma camp for displaced people near the South Darfur capital of Nyala triggered unrest inside the camp on Tuesday, with relatives demanding the handover of the alleged killer before the camp administration building was ransacked and set on fire, with reports of further deaths in the aftermath.

Isaac Mohammed Abdullah, a leader at Kalma camp and in the General Administration for Displaced People and Refugees, told Radio Dabanga that the young man was killed during an altercation with another young man outside the camp.

He says relatives of the man who was killed gathered in large numbers outside the administration’s headquarters to demand the handover of the alleged killer, who was being held by the camp administration.

Abdullah says the crowd damaged and set fire to the administration building before calm returned to the camp. He calls on displaced people to act with wisdom and restraint, not to take the law into their own hands, and to allow justice to take its course.

Adam Rijal, spokesman for the Coordination of Displaced People and Refugees, says tensions escalated inside Kalma camp following what he describes as “a criminal incident” outside the camp.

He says the incident followed incitement by certain parties and resulted in the deaths of two young men, the injury of another person, and the burning of the camp administration building.

Rijal accuses parties he says are linked to military intelligence and the government in Port Sudan of attempting to exploit the incident to assassinate leaders.

He calls on displaced people to remain vigilant and act responsibly, and not to be drawn into what he describes as attempts at defamation or exploitation.

Note: This report has been translated from Arabic with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools, and subsequently reviewed and adapted by a human editor before publication.