Police: Three dead in camp riot

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- At least three people were killed and about 18 people injured in a riot which witnesses said on Thursday was sparked by a government attempt to remove people from an informal camp for internal refugees.

A police statement said a man and two women were killed during the riot on Wednesday at the camp at Mayo, about 20 kilometers ( 12 miles ) south of the centre of Khartoum, for those displaced by conflict in the west of Sudan.

Eyewitnesses said police fired tear gas to disperse large crowds of people who mobilised to protect students who have been providing food and sanitation services to the displaced.

They said the situation in the camp was quiet but tense on Thursday with a heavy police presence. The witnesses said at least three police and 15 civilians were injured.

A police officer on the scene, who asked not to be named, also said two police men were killed. But an Interior Ministry official said there were no police deaths and the police statement only said some police were injured.

The statement said a group of displaced people attacked a police station and police responded by trying to disperse the crowd.

"But they (the rioters) regrouped and stormed the camp which created a state of chaos as a result of which the rioters used hand weapons which led to the death of three citizens, a man and two women," the statement said without describing the weapons.

The witnesses said rioters had used sticks and stones.

Ezzeddin Marbua, head of the Jabal Marra Students Union, said police had gone to the Mayo camp to remove a group of about 40 students who have been trying to protect and assist the displaced people.

More than 2,300 people from Darfur have moved to the area since late February after fleeing their villages in the west, where rebels have been fighting government troops and their militia allies for more than a year.

Roger Winter, assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told a congressional committee in Washington last week Sudanese authorities were restricting humanitarian assistance to the displaced.

"Even those who have mobilised assistance to help them have been threatened by Government of Sudan officials and told not to report the 'untrue' stories they heard from the displaced," he told the Africa subcommittee of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee.

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Refugees killed in Sudan riots
Posted: 03/19
From: BBC
Thousands have been displaced by the fighting in Darfur

At least three people have been killed in clashes between the police and refugees at a camp in Khartoum , Sudan .

A BBC correspondent says the clashes took place at a camp hosting people displaced by the fighting in Darfur .

Authorities in Sudan have forcefully relocated the 2,000 refugees to another camp following the skirmishes.

Dozens of students and politicians from Darfur who were supporting the refugees have been arrested in connection with the clashes.

Irate refugees

The BBC's Alfred Taban in Khartoum says the refugees were forced into lorries and relocated to Dar es Salaam camp about 30km from the capital.

Eyewitnesses say six people including two policemen were killed when the fighting broke out.

But a police statement says only three people were killed.

The clashes started after authorities started levying a $1 fee to people visiting relatives at the camp located at a local school in Mayo just outside the capital.

The irate refugees and their relatives burned down a local market and attacked a local police station.

"The police intervened to stop saboteurs and agitators, who it dispersed. But they regrouped and entered the camp in a manner that created chaos," said the police statement.

Some 600,000 people have fled and several thousand are believed to have died in the year-long fight between rebels and government forces in Darfur .