15 lorry drivers detained, fined in South Darfur

The authorities in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, detained 15 commercial lorry drivers last week, and ordered each of them to pay a fine of SDG15,000 ($2,630). The deputy Secretary General of the National Chamber for Commercial Vehicles, Salah Mohamed Fadul, told Radio Dabanga that the detention of the 15 drivers came at the backdrop of a decree issued by the South Darfur State Governor, Maj. Gen. Adam Mohamed Jarelnabi. The decree stipulates the sentencing to three months’ imprisonment for a driver travelling alone from Ed Daein, the capital of East Darfur, to Nyala, without the protection of a guarded convoy. The lorry owner is sentenced to a fine of SDG50,000 ($8,760). Fadul also reported that the South Darfur authorities raised the fees for a guarded convoy from SDG900 ($158) to SDG1,500 ($263) per vehicle, without giving a reason. He harshly criticised the South and East Darfur authorities for the measures now taken against the commercial lorries moving from Ed Daein to Nyala. “There are four guarded convoys a month. Often it happens that the lorries have to wait in Ed Daein for more than 20 days on a convoy. This causes huge financial losses to the lorry owners, while it subjects the drivers to imprisonment.” He pointed out that before the fees increase, a guarded convoy would cost SDG170 million ($30 million). “I wonder where the remainder of the money goes to, since a convoy usually consists of 1,000 vehicles.” File photoRelated: 340 lorries ‘stuck’ in Kutum, North Darfur (13 November 2013)