UN complains of abductions in south

Pro-government militia operating in southern Sudan have seized 122 women and children in a mass abduction in the Bahr el-Ghazal area of Mariel Bai. UNICEF spokesman for Southern Sudan, Martin Dawes, told IRIN that his organisation had put forward its concerns about recent abductions, which started last month, to the government in Khartoum. “We have reports of abductions and raids and hope to put people into the field to investigate and record names of those abducted,” he told IRIN. But the present insecurity prevented the mobilisation of field staff, said Dawes. A Reuters report said the pro-government Popular Defence Forces (PDF) militia had seized 122 women and children, killed 11 people and wounded two in the targeted area some 950 km southwest of the capital Khartoum. The Sudan government has previously vowed to combat the practice of abductions in the south, said the report. Also involved were Arab raiders of the Baggara tribe, known as the Muraheleen. Raiders from the Muraheleen reportedly stole 5,075 heads of cattle from the Dinka tribe in the Bahr el-Ghazal villages of Acuro, Ajok, Wunkir, Nyinameeth and Nyinaccor, according to the information gleaned by UN officials.