“Outlaws” in Darfur face death penalty

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has warned that armed robbers and “outlaws” operating in the Darfur states in western Sudan face amputations and hanging if caught, the official news agency, Suna, reported on Monday. “The authorities will deal decisively with everyone who attempts to intimidate people,” he was quoted as saying at a public rally in al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur State. “We will apply the Islamic shari’ah on those outlaws who seek to spread anarchy and corruption,” he added.

According to the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, Sudan’s penal code is based on the government’s interpretation of shari’ah law, and includes punitive amputations, death, and death followed by crucifixion. The normal sentence for armed robbery is cross amputation, where the right hand and left foot are amputated. The international human rights group said five men from Darfur state were convicted of armed robbery and punished by cross amputation on 25 January and 27 January 2001 at Khartoum’s Kober prison.

According to government figures published in April, some 300 soldiers and 1,781 civilians have been killed in northern and southern Darfur states in clashes with armed robbers. Armed robbery became common in western Sudan after the Khartoum government supplied arms to tribesmen in the early 1980s in an attempt to combat the activities of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), AP said. Although the government has confiscated some 30,000 weapons from the tribesmen, illegal arms are smuggled into the area from the neighbouring countries of Chad and the Central African Republic, and armed robbery remains commonplace, AP said.

Bashir was quoted as saying that armed robberies were hindering the delivery of badly needed food aid to the area. An estimated 30,000 people had fled fighting in neighbouring Western Bahr al-Ghazal following an offensive by the SPLA, and were seeking sanctuary in Southern Darfur State, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) said on 13 June.