A Sudanese court sentenced fifteen people, including a woman, to death on Tuesday for deadly April attacks on two villages of the Fur ethnic minority, the official SUNA news agency reported.
The emergency court in the Southern Darfur provincial capital of Niyala found the 15 guilty of murder, banditry and illegal possession of firearms, the news agency said.
Two other defendants were sent to jail for ten years for the attacks in which prosecutors said four villagers were killed and livestock and other property carried off. The news agency did not give the ethnic affiliation of those convicted.
Sudan's western provinces of South and North Darfur have been the scene of mounting ethnic unrest over the past decade, most of it between Arab tribes and the region's non-Arab minorities - the Masalit and Zagawa, as well as the Fur.
Khartoum's growing use of the death penalty to stem the violence prompted an alert from rights group Amnesty International last month. On July 17, the same emergency court in Niyala sentenced 88 people to death following clashes between two rival tribes - the Rizeigat and Maaliya - which left over 100 villagers dead. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
