The African centre urges Sudan to prosecute army crimes in Darfur

Contact: Osman Hummaida, Executive Director
Phone: +44 7956 095738
E-mail: [email protected]

(7 October 2010) In recent weeks, the security situation in Nyala, capital of South Darfur has deteriorated rapidly amidst the presence of the increasingly uncontrollable Popular Defence Forces and “border guards”. The “border guards” are former janjawiid militias initially integrated into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) to combat rebel groups such as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Abdul Wahid Al Nur (SLA/AW). The proliferation of armed groups in Darfur has created a climate of fear and insecurity in Nyala and contributed to a general culture of lawlessness. Civilians are often unable to tell which armed actors belong to different factions, as the border guards frequently change uniforms or patrol in plainclothes. A curfew of 7 PM has been imposed.

Authorities in South Darfur have offered differing, and often contradictory, views on the role of the border guard within the SAF. An army spokesman stated to the Sudan State News agency that they “fully belong to the Armed Forces and are subject to the Civil and Military Laws”; while a SAF fact-finding mission has suggested that local authorities consider the border guards the greatest security threat aside from the JEM and SLA/AW. The Deputy Governor of South Darfur, Abdul Kareem Musa, was quoted in Al-Sahafa on 3 October saying that there was “some evidence that the border guards and the Popular Defence Forces were involved in Altadmon bank robbery (of 29 September), but a formal investigation could not be made until more evidence materialised”. Civilians have reported being targeted by various groups; yet local authorities have taken no action to investigate, arrest, and prosecute perpetrators of human rights abuses. Some of these incidents are:

– On 13 September, border guards attacked and threatened to kill Salah Mohamed Ibrahim in Sm Alnseem area of Nyala. He was able to bribe the group with his cell phone and escape.
– On 17 September at 10 PM, an armed group believed to be border guards attacked and killed two sons of Ahmed Koko at their government-issued home adjacent to Nyala High School while Mr. Koko was not home. Mr. Koko recently had brokered a peace deal between the Misseriya and Reizegat tribes. In the weeks leading up to the attack, he had been threatened several times.
– On 28 September at 9 PM, a militia group hijacked Engineer Abdelgader Osman Ahmed’s vehicle at gunpoint. The group then drove straight to Nyala’s Ministry of Agriculture. Following the hijacking, they were not stopped by any local authorities.
– On 29 September at 3 PM, Arab militiamen believed to be affiliated with the border guards robbed the Tadamon Islamic Bank in Nyala during office hours and fled the city in a Landcruiser. Security forces shot at each other, as the border guards robbed the bank in plainclothes and then changed into military uniforms. They stole the entirety of the bank’s safe, approximately 250 million Sudanese pounds.
– On 28 September, an unknown assailant killed an IDP community leader, Abdalla Hamad, aged 57, inside of Al Salaam camp in Nyala. The perpetrators fled before they could be identified.

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies calls on the Sudanese government to fully investigate and prosecute all crimes committed by members of the SAF, and to take measures to restore security and order to Nyala. UNAMID and the government recently partnered to dig a security trench in Nyala to protect the city from carjackings and bandits, but the project so far has appropriated 1500 residential plots and killed a child who fell into it. Restrictions on humanitarian aid in Kalma continue, with aid delivered only in the evening.

The events in Nyala show the complicity of the government of South Darfur, as well as their inability to constrain the border guards and the Popular Defence Forces. No one has been arrested in connection with the crimes listed above. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies calls on the local authorities in South Darfur to launch an acceptable plan of disarmament for the border guards, youth military units, and the Popular Defence Forces.