Eight detainees, some facing charges including murder, armed robbery and fraud, escaped from a police station in South Darfur’s Mershing town, local Sudanese media reported.
Darfur24, citing eyewitnesses and local sources, said the prisoners broke through the northern side of the police station building at night before fleeing to an unknown location.
A police source in Mershing told the outlet that investigators had launched a search for the escapees, with members of the criminal investigations unit travelling to Nyala as part of efforts to track them down.
The source said neither police authorities nor the Rapid Support Forces had taken action against personnel who were guarding the station on the night of the escape, despite about a week having passed since the incident. Authorities were reportedly awaiting the arrival of a state-level investigative committee.
A community leader in Mershing said relatives of the detainees had filed reports stating that the men had disappeared while being held inside the police station and that their whereabouts remained unknown.
The search for at least one of the escapees later triggered a separate security incident, according to the community leader.
An armed group travelling on motorcycles reportedly intercepted a commercial vehicle heading to the weekly market in Al-Malam, northwest of Mershing, and ordered passengers and traders out.
The gunmen severely beat the driver, identified as Omar, after accusing him of knowing one of the fugitives.
The vehicle was later taken to the police station in Al-Malam before local residents intervened and brought both the driver and the vehicle back to Mershing for questioning.
The community leader said the armed group was not affiliated with the police but had been searching for an escaped detainee who allegedly claimed the driver had been supplying him with food and money.
Police have not issued an official statement on the escape.
Mershing locality executive director Oqba Abdelhamid also did not respond to requests for comment, according to Darfur24.
