South Darfur state planning security crackdown, officials say
September 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The governor of Sudan’s South Darfur state, Adam Mahmoud Jar Al-Nabi, has claimed that militiamen are hiding among the residents of the state’s capital of Nyala and vowed to capture them “sooner or later”.
The governor formed a committee comprised of police, security, border guards and army personnel to follow up on the execution of the security plan.
He stressed pointed that fighting lawlessness in Nyala and neighboring localities requires concerted efforts and urged security forces to tighten their security grip.
Jar Al-Nabi added that there are criminals hiding among the citizens in their neighborhoods, promising to bring them to justice.
The Darfur official also said that the recent armed confrontations which took place on the streets of Nyala have exacerbated the security situation.
Meanwhile a local official in the state said that authorities are planning to carry out extensive security raids to capture the criminals and eliminate the trouble makers.
The state’s police director, Ahmed Osman Mohamed, said that 26 police check points were set up in Nyala according to a tight security plan.
South Darfur State and its capital Nyala, the largest town in the region, have been witnessing a state of security breakdown recently. Incidents of armed robbery have increased and a protest over price rises last July saw the authorities killing 13 people most of them are teenagers.
Last July, deadly clashes erupted between members of security apparatus and a tribal militia which led to the death of First Lieutenant Ammar Anwar al-Haj and police assistant Mohammed Abdullah Sharara who is nicknamed ‘Dekrom’ and also hails from the powerful Rezeigat tribe, amid reports that militiamen continue to hide in the town’s neighborhoods.
The upsurge of violence in Darfur brings the region back to the fore after its conflict was overshadowed by more recent wars in Sudan’s southern regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The Doha Peace Document for Darfur (DPPD) which the government signed in mid-July last year with the rebel Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) is facing difficulties on multiple fronts of its implementation, mainly regarding allocation of financial resources and integration of former rebel fighters into the army.
The DRA was created as part of the DPPD, with the LJM’s leader Tijani al-Sissi its chairman.
Most of Darfur’s rebel groups still continue to oppose the DPPD, namely the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and two factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
(ST)