Tribal gunmen reportedly attack marketplace in eastern Sudan

July 27, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A group of five armed men driving a plateless car have attacked a marketplace in eastern Sudan, a local daily reported on Friday.

The assailing group, which is affiliated to the Arab nomadic tribe of Al-Rashiydah, according to the Arabic newspaper Al-Sahafa, stormed into the local marketplace of New Halfa area in Kassala State on the back of a Toyota pickup vehicle without plate number.

Al-Sahafa said that the attack had resulted in the injury of two citizens who were hospitalized. The paper also said that local officials including Kassala State commissioner Abdel Jabar Muri visited the victims and condemned the incident.

The motives of the attack are indiscernible but the Arab Bedouin tribe of Al-Rashiydah is commonly associated with arms and human trafficking activities across the shared borders between eastern Sudan and Eritrea.

Al-Rashiydah illicit activities were the target of at least two Israeli airstrikes in eastern Sudan since 2009 as part of attempts by the Jewish state to prevent the smuggling of weapons to the Gaza strip which is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas.

(ST)