Zalingei , July 8(Darfur 24)
Sources revealed that Islamic Relief Organization trucks were looted by an armed group in the Garsila area of Central Darfur state.
On June 29, the United Nations World Food Program said that unidentified armed men attacked three WFP trucks loaded with food aid on their way to central Darfur.
Sources told “Darfur 24” that the Islamic Relief Organization trucks that arrived last week in the Garsila area, the capital of Wadi Salih locality in central Darfur, were looted last Saturday night by an armed group exploiting four-wheel drive vehicles.
She pointed out that the gunmen threatened relief organization employees to unload the trucks that were parked in the city center, loaded with quantities of millet estimated at about two hundred sacks, more than 500 bags of rice, about 300 cartons of oil, and 500 cartons of nutritional biscuits.
A humanitarian volunteer in Qasila confirmed the authenticity of the looting of relief materials to the Islamic Relief Organization.
He told Darfur 24, “During the distribution of food supplies to the displaced and affected citizens in the city, he noticed the presence of armed men who demanded that the organization’s employees allocate about 280 sacks of millet, 1,120 bags of rice, 140 sacks of beans, 140 cartons of oil, and 140 cartons of biscuits for the dummar and furqan. The employees complied.” The organization therefore granted the sheikhs and mayors of Al-Damar and Al-Furqan those amounts.”
He continued: “On the evening of the same day, the same group returned to force the organization’s employees at gunpoint to hand over the remaining food supplies that they had loaded into their cars and move.”
The Rapid Support Forces control 6 out of 9 localities in Central Darfur state, while the other three localities are under the control of the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdel Wahid Mohamed Nour.