An officer and 4 others were killed in an ambush in Central Darfur

Five soldiers were killed Wednesday, when a patrol carrying them, coming from areas in “Jebel Marra” in Central Darfur state, was exposed to an armed ambush.

The army spokesman, General Nabil Abdullah, stated that “a joint force consisting of the army, the police and the rapid support came under fire from gunmen in the Raqb El-Jamal area near the city of Golo, a local capital in Jebel Marra, central Darfur,” without specifying the number of casualties. He stressed that the army is conducting an extensive sweep in the area to track down the perpetrators and identify them.

The Sudan Liberation Army movement, headed by Abdel Wahed Mohamed Nour, controls large parts of Jebel Marra, as the movement refused to negotiate with the Transitional Government and adheres to the overthrow of the military regime.

Meanwhile, police sources from the city of Zalingei, the state capital, said that a patrol belonging to the Central Reserve Police, accompanied by a car belonging to the Rapid Support Forces and another belonging to the Sudanese army, moved from Golo on its way to the state presidency in Zalingei to receive the salaries of the soldiers.

She added that the patrol was ambushed by unarmed groups on motorbikes in the “Raqb al-Jamal” area, which led to the killing of 5 on the spot, including the first lieutenant of the police force of the 67th batch, while another officer with the rank of major survived.

The police sources indicated that the attacking group seized one of the police cars and ran away towards the jungles of Jebel Marra, indicating that the State Security Committee had sent intensive security reinforcements to track them down and arrest them.