Criticizing South Darfur camp leaders arrested

Security forces arrested eight sheikhs of two camps in Gireida locality, South Darfur, on Sunday, because they rejected an order stating that each household in Gireida has to finance the locality’s security forces. A source in Gireida told Radio Dabanga that the locality’s commissioner has issued a decree ordering all households to pay SDG5 ($0.65) to support the security forces in the locality. “The camp elders of Forika 1 and 2 camps are opposed to collecting the amounts from the displaced people living in the camp,” the source said. The eight sheikhs of the camps Forika 1 and 2 have said that the displaced in the camp cannot afford to pay this amount. “Security is a core responsibility of the state,” they stated. The security forces arrested the sheikhs of Forika camps 1 and 2: Ibrahim Eisa Abakar, Hussein Mohamed Abdel Rasool, Abu Bakr Haroun Mohamed, Saleh Musa Hasab Allah, Abdel Karim Hassan Abakar, Ahmed Ishag Mohamed, Ahmed Adam Mohamed, and Abu Bakr Mohamed Fadul. The source said that the camp elders are still not released. Sheikhs of the other Gireida camps are reserved about the locality’s decision. The source added that the displaced of Gireida condemned the “unjust” arrests. They demanded the commissioner to immediately release the sheikhs, and cancel the decision to impose fees on the displaced. File photo: Three women, one with a baby, farm the land in Forika camp for internally displaced people in Gereida (South Darfur) during the rainy season. (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Central Darfur traders denounce ‘fees for military campaigns’ (17 January 2014)