North Darfur farmers call for protection from bandits

Residents of Zamzam camp for the internally displaced have called on authorities to deploy protective forces during the agricultural season to protect them while they cultivate their lands. The Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-chief of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, has given gunmen who have set up illegal ‘toll gates’ in Darfur to remove them within 24 hours.

A farmer from Zamzam camp, south El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that displaced farmers find it difficult to leave their homes to carry out their daily work due to the ongoing insecurity created by marauding gangs of armed bandits.

He said that the displaced people, who originally come from Um Hashab, Magareba, Magareba Two, Hillat Yagoub, Hillat Mursala, and Um Geio and other villages between Tabit and Zamzam camp.

The farmers are asking the authorities to bring in the protection forces to establish security and enable them to farm during the coming agricultural season.

The displaced people from Zamzam camp, who were displaced from villages east of Tabit in North Darfur a year ago, have requested the authorities allow them to cultivate their land in this season several times.

Armed robbery

A vehicle was hijacked and another overturned in an armed robbery near El Gallab area on the Nyala-El Fasher road on Saturday evening.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that, after firing heavily into the air, three masked gunmen intercepted two passenger vehicles on their way from El Fasher to Nyala, near Gallab, 30 kilometres west of El Fasher.

Witnesses indicated that one of the two vehicles overturned and the gunmen robbed the passengers of their belongings, took the other vehicle and fled with it to an unknown destination.

None of the passengers were injured. They pointed out that a complaint of the incident was filed to the joint forces stationed near Zamzam camp, but they did not move to track down the perpetrators.

Illegal ‘toll gates’

The Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-chief of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, confirmed the existence of “unnamed parties working in illegally collecting funds by setting up fake ‘toll gates’ in North Darfur.

Addressing the worshipers after the Eid prayer in North Darfur, gave those parties 24 hours to leave the area. According to the Sudan News Agency, he called for a law making education compulsory in the states of Darfur, especially North Darfur.

He said that during his visit to West Darfur, stability was restored to more than ten areas in West Darfur, which were “a stronghold of gangs, bandits, and saboteurs”.

He stressed that all the reconciliations that took place in West Darfur are real and not political.