Trigger happy day in Fasher

Today's short story takes place in El Fasher, the administrative capital of North Darfur.

I sent an article a while back about the number of carjackings in town and around the IDP camps. Well, today, some unlucky group decided to try to carjack a couple of trucks from a local construction company. They fired a few shots in the air to put off any one brave enough to try to stop them and sped off down the streets headed for out of town.

The ever present border police were immediately on their tails and managed to stop the vehicles and apprehend them. The police were so proud of themselves that they could not resist firing off a few rounds to let people know of their victory. No sooner had one soldier started firing his automatic rifle did people all around the city begin to fire in response. Gunfire was everywhere. I think all my neighbors fired at least 20 rounds before the city grew quiet. I did not know about the carjacking or the police at the time and thought that everyone had heard some particularly good news on the radio or something, But in actuality, it turns out that rumor quickly spread that rebels were trying to take the town and people fired their guns to send a message to the would-be-rebels that they will face a well-armed civilian population if they tried. The army (which also did not get the memo) set up roadblocks and rolled out a tank - tearing up the newly paved road in the process.

The whole matter did not last for more than 20 minutes but people are so high strung that it took no more than a few celebratory shots to set everyone on edge.

So much for veil of peace.