Over 10 South Sudanese refugees killed by mob in Sudan’s Sennar state

JUBA – At least ten South Sudanese refugees have been killed by local residents in Sinja Abdallah of Sudan’s Sennar state on Monday with attack by the locals resuming on Tuesday morning, several South Sudanese refugees have told Sudans Post.

The refugees who spoke to Sudans Post’s Nancy Abdurrahman in Khartoum from Sennar state said the incident occurred when a local farmer took seven South Sudanese to harvest his farm, but disagreed on the how much they should be paid.

“They went to the farm, and negotiated the price; some boys accepted the price while others did not. Those who accepted the price remained working while those who refused were to be transported back according to their agreement, the man carried the boys from the farm but somewhere in a place called Marda, the trader told the boys to get down from there and walked on footing as punishment for refusing his work,” the refugee who refused to be named said.

Based on the agreement, according to the refugee, the trader unidentified as Mohamed promised to transport the South Sudanese citizens back to Sennar’s capital in case they disagree on how much they should be paid, but the trader opted to shoot them as a punishment for them for refusing to work with him.

“They exchanged words over that issue in which the boys were arguing that they should be taken to Senja where he brought them as their initial agreement. Mohamed Jada ordered the boys to get down by force and opened fire on them shooting 3 boys and the other boys responded in self-defense wounded the trader Mohamed seriously and was driven directly to hospital and died from there,” he said.

He said the relatives of the man gathered along with other locals to attack the workers in the farms, this time, against any South Sudanese. He added that while the death toll remains around 10, there are chances that the number could be higher as attacks continue.

“Then immediately the relatives of the deceased plus civilian youth of that area took arms and launched brutal attack of South Sudanese (Nuer youth) who were innocently working in the farms and killed 10 people on spot and many others wounded on that Monday including those boys who remained working in Mohamed ‘s farm,” he said.

“The operation resumed the next Tuesday, attacking every South Sudanese found in the farms but the death toll is not known up to now. The government intervened at the late afternoon of Tuesday,” he added.