Gunmen dressed in military garb rob bank in south Darfur
September 29, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – An unknown group of armed men yesterday robbed a branch of Al-Tadamon Islamic bank in the local market of Nyala town, the provincial capital of south Darfur State, taking a large sum of cash.
According to reports published by the local press in Khartoum, the group comprised of five members who were dressed in military outfits and carried Kalashnikov assault rifles. They parked their Toyota Land Cruiser-model vehicle in front of the bank’s building and then moved to assault the bank’s guards and seize their weapons.
Eye witnesses recounted that the armed men broke into the bank and robbed a sum of cash estimated by 257.000 Sudanese pounds (US$85600). Members of the group later started firing gunshots randomly.
Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area. South Darfur’s Governor Abd-al-Hamid Musa Kasha has pledged to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Since becoming the focus of an armed conflict between the Sudanese government and rebels in 2003, the Darfur region has witnessed a high level of various criminal activates. These activities include banditry, kidnapping of foreign aid workers and armed robberies.
(ST)