BA'ASHIM (2 Jun.) - Three boys were maimed when a grenade they found and played with detonated in the area of Ba’ashim in North Darfur on Sunday.
Zubeir Suleiman Ibrahim (13), Bush Hamid Sandal (13), and Muzamil Mohamed Zakaria (12) lost their hands. Ba’ashim is in Kutum locality, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched widespread attacks on villages in March.
Apart from losing their hands, the boys sustained face, shoulder and leg injuries, a relative of one of the boys told Radio Dabanga. He said that he fears the boys may bleed to death, as there is no health centre in the neighbourhood. “The nearest hospital is in Mellit town, tens of kilometres away.”
He appealed to the Unamid team in Kutum town or North Darfur’s capital El Fasher intervene and to save the lives of the three children.
Years of conflict have left Darfur littered with potentially deadly explosives and munitions (UXO). Radio Dabanga appeals to listeners throughout Darfur (and elsewhere in our reception area) not to touch any ‘unexploded’ grenades or other ammunition found in the field. Mark its position clearly to alert others, and report it immediately to a camp sheikh, Unamid and/or the local police.