Military decides to demarcate tribal lands in eastern Sudan

February 22, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The military-led Sovereign Council decided to set up a committee to demarcate tribal lands in eastern Sudan as part of its efforts to settle a crisis triggered by the rejection of several Beja tribes of the Juba peace agreement.

In order to end the tribal dispute, the Sovereign Council suspended the Eastern Sudan peace agreement in mid-December 2021 and formed a high committee to end the crisis chaired by Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daglo Hemetti.

The committee, which include also tribal leaders, held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the recommendations made to settle the dispute.

After the meeting, Hemetti issued several decisions to ease tensions and end the dispute between the supporters and the opponents of the peace agreement.

The most important of these decisions was the formation of the High Technical Committee for delaminating and demarcating the administrative boundaries of tribes and the chiefdoms in the three eastern Sudan states.

The decision provides that Muaz Ahmed Mohamed Tango, head of the National Border Commission, will head the committee.

Also, it requested the tribe to prepare and produce maps and documents that confirm their ownership of ancestral lands.

According to several sources, the committee had initially decided to redraw the borders of the three states of eastern Sudan, Mohamed Turk but the leader of the Beja group opposed the peace agreement demanding that the decision be amended to demarcate the administrative borders of the tribal chiefdoms in each state.

For his part, Abdallah Mohamed Darf, a representative of the Beni Amer tribal group, voiced his opposition to this request. He said that demarcating the borders between the states is better, adding that no tribe can be defined by lands.

However, Hemetti backed Turk stressing the existence of “moral rights” for the tribes. He added that every tribe or chiefdom has its own land and borders.

The Beni Amer tribe, which also has branches in Eretria, says that the Hadandawi leader Turk has been targeting their tribal group.

The group had previously criticized the former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok for relieving the FFC nominated former Kassala Governor Saleh Ammar in October 2020 under Turk pressure.

At the time, the Beja leader said Kassala cannot be ruled by Beni Amer.

Turk who was close to the banned National Congress Party of the former President Omer al-Bashir had requested to join the Juba peace talks to ensure their participation in the government once an agreement is concluded.

Having been rejected, he mobilized tribal groups in eastern Sudan against the deal.

But when the government rejected their request, they staged a series of protests including blocking the Khartoum-Port Sudan strategic highway, closing the maritime terminals on the Red Sea and Port Sudan airport.

(ST)