A senior local official of the Sudan Liberation Movement–Transitional Council (SLM-TC) has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kabkabiya, North Darfur, prompting calls for an investigation and the arrest of those responsible.
Musa Hussein Mohammed Soum, who headed the movement’s local office in Kabkabiya, was killed on Friday evening, October 9, when armed men riding a motorcycle intercepted him as he returned home, according to local Sudanese media.
Witnesses said Soum had visited relatives in the Barqi neighbourhood and was travelling back to his residence in the Al-Ameriya district in eastern Kabkabiya when the attackers opened fire, killing him at the scene.
The Darfur Victims Support Organization said the 33-year-old civil activist was attacked at approximately 8 p.m., citing interviews with eyewitnesses and one of his relatives.
The organisation identified Soum as a graduate of Omdurman Islamic University’s Faculty of Arts and condemned his killing, demanding that those responsible be brought to justice.
Ahmed Mohammed al-Tayeb, a traditional community leader in North Darfur, told local Sudanese media that the attackers fired multiple rounds at Soum before fleeing.
Al-Tayeb said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which control Kabkabiya, had begun pursuing the suspects and established a joint security coordination committee with the Sudan Liberation Movement–Transitional Council to investigate the killing.
The movement’s North Darfur office separately called on security authorities to identify and arrest the perpetrators and conduct a transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Soum’s death.
No group has claimed responsibility for the shooting, and the motive remains unknown.
Soum was both a local civil society activist and a representative of the SLM-TC faction led by Al-Hadi Idris, who serves as a member of the Presidential Council and governor of Darfur in the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) administration.
The TASIS government was established by the RSF and allied political and armed movements as a rival administration to the army-aligned authorities in Port Sudan.
The killing comes amid persistent security challenges across Darfur, where armed robberies, kidnappings, tribal disputes and attacks by unidentified gunmen have continued despite changes in territorial control.
The RSF controls most of Darfur, while areas of Jebel Marra remain under the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid al-Nur. Sudanese military forces and allied groups retain positions in several northern border towns.
