The United Nations said Friday that 25,000 people have been displaced in Sudan’s Darfur region after unrest that began 10 days ago with the killing of a government official.
“Reports received by the UN indicate that the entire population of the Kassab IDP camp — 25,000 people — fled because of the fighting,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in its latest weekly bulletin.
The Kassab camp — home to people who had already been displaced by Darfur’s nine-year-long conflict — is on the edge of Kutum town, northwest of the North Darfur state capital El Fasher.
The unrest, part of a surge in violence in Sudan’s vast western region, began on August 1 when a district chief, Abdelrahman Mohammed Eissa, was shot dead in Kutum during a carjacking attempt.
Reports received by the UN said members of Eissa’s Jalul tribe then killed two displaced people and a police officer, and destroyed a local market.
On August 3, “two members of the government delegation that arrived in Kutum for a meeting with the governor were shot at and injured,” OCHA said.
“The UN also received reports of looting of houses of displaced people, markets and businesses in the Kassab IDP camp and Kutum town.”
State-linked media reported on Sunday that two soldiers were killed when the army moved in to stop the looting by “outlaws”.
The deployment was unusual as civic law enforcement is normally a police responsibility.