FFC: South Darfur Unamid base looting ‘organised theft’

The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in South Darfur demand that the government form a committee to investigate the plundering of the former UN-AU Mission (Unamid) base in Nyala, South Darfur, last week. They accuse the governor and government of South Darfur of “organised theft”.

In a memorandum submitted to Sudan’s Sovereign Council, the FFC describes the plundering as a crime against the Sudanese people, “especially as the matter affects the reputation of the revolutionary government to the United Nations and the international community”.

They question the revolution forces’ seriousness in real transformation.

The memorandum indicated that the FFC received information since Thursday that the property of the Unamid base was stolen by the very forces that should have protected them.

Governor

The FFC demanded that the South Darfur governor hold an urgent meeting to clarify the matter. The governor did not respond. However, according to the FFC, he did distribute most of the equipment from the camp to entities considered to be institutions or facades of the defunct regime.

“The state government and its security forces guarded the camp laxly, which led to the theft of all equipment on Friday during the day and the night,” the memorandum reads.

$100 million

The Unamid base in South Darfur was handed over to the South Darfur authorities on 19 November. The property was estimated to be worth about $100 million.

Both the FFC and the South Darfur government agreed to give the Mission’s property to the University of Nyala and the police administration in South Darfur.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga on Friday, FFC leader Mahmoud Ismail said they actually formed a committee to do so, but the hand-over to the university and the police never took place.

Organised theft

Ismail explicitly accused the acting governor Maj Gen Hashim Khalid and the South Darfur government of systematically organising the theft.

“We wrote to the governor regarding the delay of handing over the property to the university and the police, and he responded that the transfer had already happened. Then we contacted the university and they told us nothing had happened,” he said.

West Darfur

In May 2019 civilian and uniformed individuals ransacked and looted Unamid’s West Darfur headquarters in El Geneina on the very day it was due to be handed over to the government of Sudan.

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