North Darfur bans vehicles without licence plates
May 5, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The governor of North Darfur state, Osman Mohamed Youssef Kibir, has directed the state’s police and traffic department to activate previous decisions on banning of vehicles and motorcycles driving around without licence plates.
The governor directive doesn’t exclude government and regular forces vehicles.
Kibir, who addressed the celebration of the Arab traffic week on Sunday, granted the police full powers to carry out those directives, saying the police have the right to stop all vehicles and motorcycles which don’t carry licence plates even if it was the governor’s car.
He said that vehicles which run without licence plates played negative role in the Darfur crisis, pointing they were used by perpetrators to blur their crimes.
North Darfur state had recently witnessed a series of tribal violence committed by unidentified groups which are thought to be former government militias that turned into looting and kidnapping gangs throughout the state.
Tribal clashes in the state coincided with attacks carried out by the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM). The violence displaced over 215,000 civilians in the state.
Last March, the head of Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), Tijani El-Sissi warned against the rapidly deteriorating security situation in North and South Darfur states and criticised government for failing to restore security in the region, which has witnessed rebellion since 2003.
(ST)