(AKI) - Unidentified gunmen have shot dead the tribal leader of a refugee camp in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. It was the latest in a series of attacks on the 2.7 million people uprooted by over five years of fighting between the government and rebels, the United Nations reported late on Thursday. Around 300,000 people have died in the conflict.A patrol from the joint United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur dispatched to Camp Hassa Hissa in West Darfur on receiving reports of the attack, confirmed that the camp leader had been killed but found the camp to be calm.
It was the second violent incident in a Darfur refugee camp this month. On 1 December two government-allied Janjaweed militiamen armed with a rifle quarrelled with refugees at Hissa Hissa camp in South Darfur.
One of the militiamen was severely beaten and later died and a refugee was slightly injured in the incident. Sudanese police arrested a second militiaman and took him into custody.
The following day a dozen armed men set ablaze a water pump and five generators supplying energy to Hissa Hissa, injuring a refugee. Also on this occasion, UNAMID sent an armed team to ease tensions between the camp residents and the militiamen.
A day later, two gunmen equipped with AK-47 assault rifles and a hand grenade stopped a humanitarian convoy, beat up aid workers and stole money as it was on its way from Nyala, the South Darfur capital, to Kalma refugee camp, the UN said.