April 11, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Tuesday said it has arrested five notorious human traffickers from various nationalities after clashes near the borders with Egypt and Libya.

RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, (aka Hametti) said his forces captured the human traffickers and seized six four-wheel-drive vehicles in the triangular area on Sudan’s borders with Libya, Egypt and Chad.

He told the official news agency SUNA that the traffickers were arrested after fierce clashes, saying the RSF continued to carry out its national duties on combating cross-border crimes including arms, narcotic and gold smuggling.

Daglo added that a number of the human traffickers fled inside the Libyan territory after the clashes.

In June 2016, hundreds of RSF elements have been deployed in the remote desert of the Northern State shortly after a complaint by the governor of drug and human trafficking by the criminal networks.

Sudan is considered as a country of origin and transit for the illegal migration and human trafficking. Thousands of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia are monthly crossing the border into the Sudanese territories on their way to Europe through Libya or Egypt.

Last year, the European Union granted a €100m development package to address the root causes of irregular migration in Sudan. The financial support came after a pledge by the Sudanese government to cooperate with Brussels to stop human trafficking to Europe.

Last week, the Enough Project warned against the dual-use of European support to the Sudanese security agencies including the brutal RSF militia to stop the flow of migrants.

The EU will assist the RSF and other security agencies with the construction of two camps with detention facilities for migrants and will equip the Sudanese forces with cameras, scanners, and electronic servers for registering refugees.

The RSF, which is widely known as the Janjaweed militia, were originally mobilised by the Sudanese government to quell the insurgency that broke out in Sudan’s western region of Darfur in 2003.

The militia was reactivated and restructured again in August 2013 under the command of National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to fight the alliance of rebel groups from Darfur region, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. In January, the Sudanese parliament passed the RSF Act which integrates the militia in the Sudanese army.

(ST)