North Darfur governor declares state of maximum readiness
June 25, 2016 (EL-FASHER) – Governor of North Darfur state Abdel-Wahid Youssef on Saturday issued a number of decrees including a declaration of a state of maximum readiness among regular forces to control the lawlessness situation the capital, El-Fasher.
El-Fasher has witnessed a series of killing and looting incidents during the last couple of weeks despite governments’ measures that banned riding of unlicensed vehicles and motorcycles besides wearing of Kadamool (a turban which covers the face).
On Friday, hundreds of residents protested against the repeated killing incidents following the killing of a 30 years old resident, Abdallah Fadl by unknown gunmen riding unlicensed motorcycles.
Police fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the protesters who marched near the house of the governor and shouted against the deteriorating security situation in El-Fasher.
The state’s security committee issued a statement denouncing the protests and accused the demonstrators of seeking to destabilize the security situation in El-Fasher.
The committee vowed to take further strict security measures against the protesters, expressing sympathy with the families of the victims.
It pointed that such protests distract police and security forces from prosecuting the offenders, pledging to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Earlier this month, a joint campaign between the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and the traffic police in North Darfur has led to the seizure of dozens of vehicles illegally smuggled from the neighbouring countries.
Gunmen commonly use vehicles and motorcycles that don’t hold license plates to carry out killing and looting crimes.
Commissioner of El-Fasher locality al-Tigani Abdallah Salih had earlier said that directives were issued to monitor and stop unlicensed cars, pointing that the vehicles which were seized have contributed to increasing crime rate in the state.
(ST)