Sudan Events – Agencies
Gunmen kidnapped on Thursday three commercial trucks loaded with fuel and carrying more than 100 people, in the Qahwat al-Laban area, about 12 km southeast of Zalingei in Central Darfur.
The phenomenon of kidnapping and looting trucks has been repeated on the road linking the cities of Zalingei and Nertiti in Central Darfur State.
The merchant Ismail Ali said, according to “Darfur 24”, that the looted convoy moved from Zalingei market heading to the city of Nertiti, west of Jebel Marra, carrying more than a hundred passengers and various goods, in addition to more than 30 barrels of fuel, in addition to cash that the passengers had.
He affirmed that more than a hundred passengers were kidnapped with the trucks, and only one person survived and managed to escape until he reached the city of Nertiti at noon on Wednesday.
For his part, the merchant Mubarak Ahmed, who works between “Al-Jabal, Zalingei, Al-Geneina and Adre” of Chad, said that the closure of the road between Nertiti and Zalingei has disrupted commercial activity in all of Darfur, at a time when Jebel Marra is the largest source of agricultural and horticultural production, supplying all cities in the Darfur region with food and horticultural crops.
He added that “the merchants have devised alternative routes to deliver goods to and from Jebel Marra, but instead of finding a solution to the road problem by the Rapid Support RSF Militia controlling West and some localities in Central Darfur, with the Sudan Liberation Army Movement ( SLAM ) controlling Jebel Marra, the phenomenon of kidnapping and looting of commercial trucks has emerged on the alternative routes used by merchants and organizations to deliver goods, relief and medicines to Jebel Marra, and to carry crops from there to citizens in Nyala, Zalingei, Al-Geneina and even Chad.”
Mubarak denied that any force, neither from the movement in Nertiti nor from the Rapid Support Forces in Zalingei, had moved to pursue the looting gangs that have been active since last June in looting and hijacking trucks and commercial vehicles in the area linking the cities of Zalingei and Nertiti.
