Armed raiders forced their way into an aid compound belonging to Swiss charity Medair in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region and opened fire, wounding a humanitarian worker, a Medair official said today.
"A staff member has been slightly injured when an armed raid entered our compound," a Medair official in Switzerland told Reuters. "They entered the compound with forced entry and they shot ... and hurt one of our team members."
The official said the humanitarian worker was hit by shrapnel during the robbery early yesterday in El Geneina in West Darfur. Some electronic equipment was stolen, she said.
Sudan's al-Rai al-Aam newspaper identified the wounded aid worker as a British man, but the Medair official could not immediately give the nationality of the person who was hurt.
Law and order has collapsed in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan's government in 2003, accusing Khartoum of marginalising the western region. Sudan's government mobilised mostly Arab militias to crush the rebellion.
Since then, the conflict has disintegrated into a free-for-all involving bandits, rebel factions, government troops, militias and rival tribes.
Estimates of the death count in the ethnic and politically motivated conflict range from 10,000 according to Khartoum, to 300,000 according to UN humanitarian chief John Holmes.
The UN and aid groups have launched the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur to care for millions of civilians caught up in the conflict.
Sudan's government has promised to protect UN and other development organisations after a decision from the Hague-based International Criminal Court in March to indict President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Darfur war crimes accusations.
But senior officials have said they might not be able to control individual extremists who say the court is part of a Western conspiracy against Sudan.
Meanwhile, attempts to secure the release of two women who were kidnapped while working for the Irish aid agency Goal in the Darfur region of Sudan are continuing
Sharon Commins (32) from Clontarf, Dublin, and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki (42) were seized from a Goal compound in Kutum, in north Darfur, by a gang of armed men nearly two weeks ago.
Reuters