A convoy of three commercial buses escorted by UN peacekeepers in Darfur was halted on Sunday by the Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdelwahid Al Nur, which abducted the 31 displaced people on board, including eight women.
The peacekeepers did not resist the abduction by force. It was not clear how many UN soldiers were in the escort.
A statement subsequently released ty the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur stated that the “the Mission is sparing no effort to ascertain the current situation of the IDPs, who were on their way from Zalingei town, Central Darfur State, to Nyala to attend the IDPs and Refugees’ Conference.”
UNAMID described the abductors as “a large unidentified armed group in military uniforms and seven jeep mounted guns.”
SLA-AW, the armed group that has claimed responsibility for the abduction, targeted the convoy because they oppose the Nyala Conference scheduled for yesterday and today, to which the group was traveling at the invitation of the Darfur Regional Authority.
The rebels’ military spokesman Abdel Wahid Mustapha Tambour said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that they arrested the travelers “because they were almost all security people pretending to be IDPs.” He has vowed to produce evidence that the IDPs headed to the conference were not ordinary citizens but security agents.
The incident occurred in the evening around 6:20, between the Arga crossing point and Kass locality, a border area between Central Darfur State and South Darfur State.
Tijani Sese, the chairman of the Darfur Regional Autority, has condemned “the handing over 31 displaced to an armed movement without the slightest resistance.” He further said that kidnapping of “innocent” people is “by all means an act of sabotage aimed at foiling the summit and sending negative signs to donors.”