Two children were killed and three others seriously injured in South Darfur’s capital of Nyala on Monday, when the ammunition they had found detonated.
“Three children of Dagash Hamdan, living in El Mustagbal district in Nyala, found Dushka machinegun ammunition on Monday,” one of the neighbours told Radio Dabanga. “It was left there by their uncle. They played a while with the ammunition, until one of the children put it on a fire, to let it explode like firework. The youngest of them was killed instantly. The two others had to be transferred in critical condition to a hospital.”
On the same day, another child was killed and his brother’s hand maimed in the Mouseh district in the south-eastern part of Nyala on Monday. The boys were trying to dismantle a cartridge from the rifle of their uncle, when it detonated, another source in the South Darfur capital told Radio Dabanga.
Residents of the suburbs of Nyala have been complaining for years about militiamen, elements of the paramilitary Border Guards, or the Central Reserve Force, living in their neighbourhoods. “These men are not all too professional with guns, and careless as well. They often leave their weapons in the open, within the reach of children,” the source explained.
Years of conflict have left Darfur littered with potentially deadly explosives and munitions (UXO). Radio Dabanga appeals to listeners throughout Darfur (and elsewhere in our reception area) not to touch any ‘unexploded’ grenades or other ammunition found in the field. Mark its position clearly to alert others, and report it immediately to a camp sheikh, Unamid and/or the local police.
File photo by Albert Gonzand#225;lez Farran/Unamid