Darfur: six aid workers assaulted near government checkpoint

December 4, 2008 (EL FASHER) — After passing two government checkpoints on the short drive between Nyala town and Kalma camp for displaced persons, a convoy of six aid workers in three vehicles was stopped, robbed and beaten by two gunmen on Thursday morning.

Three out of the six workers were severely beaten and hospitalized, where their condition is listed as stable.

The humanitarian workers were trying to reach Kalma camp, home to more than 90,000 people who had fled from attacks on their villages. They work for the aid group International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The UNAMID peacekeeping mission, tasked with protecting refugees and aid workers, raised the possibility that the attack was an act of banditry, citing suspicions that the attackers had been informed that the IOM convoy was transporting cash intended for the payment of salaries for the Kalma camp relief workers.

However, a spokesperson stated, “Although the workers complied without resistance to demands for money, the attackers assaulted them up before leaving the scene.”

Kalma camp is the site of an attack that took place in August, in which police and armed soldiers shot dead 33 residents and wounded at least 65 in a two-hour long confrontation.

Sudanese authorities regularly avow a desire to shut down the camp and others in statements to national press.

The Nyala office of the UN humanitarian coordinating agency, OCHA, confirmed reports of the attack.

So far this year 11 aid workers have been killed, 261 vehicles hijacked, 172 premises assaulted, 35 convoys ambushed or looted, 189 staff abducted, 28 wounded, and 25 forcibly relocated between January and September 2008, according to the UN.

(ST)