Former rebel leader holds Sudan’s military responsible for Darfur violence

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The head of the Justice and Equality Movement, Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, holds the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) responsible for the growing insecurity in the country. Sources reported four armed robberies on Saturday. The North Darfur governor has urged the deployment of more security forces in the region.

“The political turmoil has led to security turmoil in the country,” Ibrahim said in a speech during the movement’s annual iftar (breaking of the fast) in Khartoum on Saturday. “We hold our brothers in the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) responsible for the security in the country.”

He urged the leaders of the disputing Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF to “put aside egoism and work towards a stable future”.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga in early  February, rebel leader Minni Minawi, Governor of Darfur, said that the Sovereignty Council and the security apparatus bear the main responsibility for the deterioration of the security situation in Darfur.

Both Ibrahim and Minawi did not oppose the coup d’état in October 2021, headed by SAF Commander-in-chief and President of the Sovereignty Council Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan. While other officials resigned following the coup, Minawi remained Governor of Darfur and Ibrahim Minister of Finance.

“They are unable to see that there was a revolution,” Yassir Arman, founder of the SPLM-N-Democratic Revolutionary Movement and spokesperson for the FFC-CC, said to Radio Dabanga on Saturday.  

Recent attacks reported

A tractor driver sustained bullet wounds when he was shot by unidentified gunmen east of Manawashi, South Darfur, on Saturday.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Sheikh Hammad, a member of the Manawashi Community Protection Network, reported that armed men riding on motorcycles shot at the vehicle. Driver Abdelmonim Mohamed was seriously injured and had to be transferred to the Nyala Teaching Hospital.

Hammad further said that in the same area, about 22 km east of Manawashi, a group of armed men assaulted two displaced men riding on a tuk-tuk loaded with firewood on the same day. They beat the victims with their whips before robbing them of their belongings.

In Central Darfur, the passengers of a bus and a small vehicle were subjected to armed robberies on Saturday.

Activist Adam Bakheet told Radio Dabanga that the bus was intercepted by armed men riding on camels on the road between Nyala and Mukjar. “All passengers were robbed,” he said. “A police force managed to confront the gunmen and seize four camels before the perpetrators escaped.”

On the Mukjar-Garsila road, an armed group intercepted a small passenger vehicle. “They seized the passengers’ belongings before fleeing to an unknown destination.”

As reported by Radio Dabanga yesterday, a senior army officer was killed by unidentified gunmen in Central Darfur capital of Zalingei, on Thursday.

Last week, another army officer was shot dead, in Nyala, capital of South Darfur.

More forces needed

The acting governor of North Darfur, Nimir Abdelrahman, former head of the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council (SLM-TC), called for the deployment of more forces to protect the people and in particular the farmers in the region.

At the conclusion of the first regional agricultural forum in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on Saturday, Abdelrahman urged the speeding up the deployment of security forces in the region, “to secure the farmlands, encourage investors, rehabilitate the administrations in the five Darfur states, and improve the work environment”.