A displaced Arab killed by angry African mob in a displaced camp

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug 13, 2004 (AP) — A displaced Arab in Darfur was killed Friday in a skirmish between Arab and African tribes while in the care of an international aid organization, Sudan’s official news agency reported.

Madbou Ahmed Abdul Rahman was beaten to death by a rowdy crowd of Africans when he and 16 others from his camp arrived at another displaced camp occupied mostly by African tribes, SUNA reported.

Workers from CARE International had accompanied Abdul Rahman and his group two kilometers south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, to another camp 12 kilometers east of Nyala for a health training program, despite opposition by the families of the 17, the agency reported.

When the group arrived in the second camp, a group of African residents attacked the newcomers. CARE workers brought the 17 Arabs into its wooden office for cover, but the angry crowd stormed the place, SUNA reported.

All fled except Abdul Rahman, who was beaten to death.

SUNA said CARE workers didn’t interfere, and are being questioned by security and police in the area.

CARE officials contacted in London said they were unaware of the incident.

State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mohammed Youssef Abdullah told The Associated Press that CARE’s decision to take Arabs to an African camp was a “mistake.”

“It is not wise to bring the two parties together in an area still witnessing tensions,” Abdullah said. He said the Arabs taken to the camp were believed to have taken part in attacking African camps.

Abdullah said 12 Arabs were brought to the camp, not 17, and that 11 of them were missing after Abdul Rahman’s death.

If the idea was to restore peace by bringing people together, “this is not in their mandate to restore social fabric,” Abdullah said. Aid workers from abroad are ignorant of local customs, he said.

The police delivered the body of Abdul Rahman to his family.

The Darfur conflict began 18 months ago, when two African rebel groups took up arms in a struggle over land and resources in the western part of the country.

Since then, militiamen from Darfur’s nomadic Arab tribes waged a counterinsurgency to drive back the African tribes, destroying villages of African farmers across the region, purportedly with support from the government. As many as 30,000 people have been killed and 1 million forced to flee their homes in what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Sudanese officials accuse the West of blowing the crisis out of proportion and conspiring against Sudan to get its hands on its resources.