North Darfur elders scorn V-P’s statements

Leaders, Sheikhs and Omdas of North Darfur have reacted to statements made by Sudan’s Second Vice-President Hasabo Abdelrahman in Kutum, El Sareif and Saraf Omra regarding the disarmament of the militias.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga from the state’s camps for the displaced, leaders branded the arrest of outlaws and criminals and the collection of arms as “political propaganda to draw the attention of local and international public opinion that the government is serious in arresting criminals”.

However they told Radio Dabanga that “outlaws and criminals have been made by the government for carrying out its agenda”.

They demanded that if the government is serious, it has to disarm its militias and return the powers of the native administrations.

Activists in North Darfur camps told Radio Dabanga that the police and military forces are incapable of arresting the criminals and called on the government to disarm militias and confine arms to the hands of the police and the army.

A woman activist from Kabkabiya camps said that “the native administration in Darfur has a long history in the establishment of security and justice,” however those powers have been taken away from the native administrations since the outbreak of war in Darfur in 2003. “Ever since then, they could not arrest the criminals backed by the government. We are more confident in the capabilities of the native administrations to apprehend and bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice if those powers are returned to them,” she concluded.