Sudan police and int’l organizations on high alert ahead of elections

April 9, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese security forces, UN peacekeepers, international organizations and the people of Sudan have all boosted security measures ahead of the nation’s first multi-party elections in 24 years set to start on Sunday.

Concerns have been raised in recent months of chaos and violence during the elections particularly in the South and the remote part of the country.

The Sudanese interior ministry said on its website that Khartoum governor Abdel-Rahman Al-Khidir discussed with the police the security arrangements as well as the food reserves and electricity and water supplies. He denied rumors that a curfew has been imposed in some areas.

“We have planned for more than 100,000 police officers to supervise the elections [in North Sudan],” General Mohammed Ahmed Ali, in charge of election security, said earlier this week.

The protection plan involves tracking rumors, securing polling stations, VIP security and foreign missions.

Embassies in the Sudanese capital have advised their citizens to adopt “precautionary measures,” like stocking food, filling their cars with gasoline and making sure they have alternative energy sources in the event of demonstrations that could overshadow Sunday’s polls.

The security forces are increasingly visible in Khartoum, amid rumors that some residents have left the city as a precautionary measure. “During the past three (days), movement out of Khartoum has greatly increased,” said Yousuf Dufaalla, who heads a transport company to Agence France Presse (AFP).

Normally we have 20 coaches a day on the roads, but since Wednesday we have gone up to 50,” he said. “I am returning to my birthplace in Wad Madani because I am uncertain that Khartoum will be safe, said Moutawakil Hassan Sharif, a 27-year-old student, referring to a city about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) south of Khartoum.

“I anticipate a lot of election-related disorder,” he added. Sudan, Africa’s largest country, holds multi-party legislative, local and presidential elections from Sunday to Tuesday, the first in the impoverished, war-ravaged nation since 1986.

South Sudan is plagued by spiraling tribal violence, and the pre-election situation has been tenuous in the towns of Bentiu and Malakal, in the far north of the territory, and in the Jonglei state, according to witnesses.

The United Nations “blue helmets will ensure safety in areas where the threats of armed conflict are present,” said Haile Menkerios, a UN special representative in Sudan. The United Nations has nearly 10,000 soldiers and police officers in south Sudan and in border regions.

Also, our troops will help ensure that these conflicts do not create an atmosphere where the populace are not able to exercise their voting rights,” he said at a recent news conference in Khartoum.

In Darfur, where a state of emergency is in force, there have been violent clashes over the past few months between rebels and the army in Jebel Marra, and between rival Arab tribes in the towns of Kass and Nertiti.

The Darfur rebels oppose the elections, but have not threatened to derail them in a region prone to endemic insecurity. European Union election monitors were withdrawn from Darfur for security reasons, officials from the observer group said.

We are ready for any eventuality … We did not put our protection mandate in parentheses because of the elections,” a
UN spokesman in Darfur, told AFP.

The Sudanese Red Crescent is on a state of alert for the elections, and has already mobilized some 15,000 volunteers nationwide to cope with emergencies, an official told AFP.

(ST)