North Darfur’s Jebel Amer gold mine to be ‘reorganised’

The authorities of El Sareif locality are reorganising the management of the gold mine of Jebel Amer.

Locality Commissioner Mohamed Ismail Adam is leading “the reorganisation campaign” after “security forces managed to restore security and stability in the mining area”, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported on Sunday.

The reorganisation includes measures to improve the health situation for the workers, the restructuring and legalisation of the Jebel Amer market, and “the prevention of monopolising the land in the area for personal interests”.

The commissioner praised the cooperation of the mining companies in the campaign.

Last week, large formations of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in dozens of armed vehicles carried out a large-scale search campaign for illegal weapons in Jebel Amer. Militants controlling the mine reportedly fled.

Abbala militants

In January this year, multiple sources from El Sareif Beni Hussein told this station that thousands of armed people from Chad, Central African Republic, Niger, and Mali are mining in Jebel Amer since 2013, and that they smuggle the gold found out of the country.

Interior Minister Esmat Abdelrahman demanded the intervention of the army to protect the large mining area. He said that the Jebel Amer mine is controlled by more than 3,000 people from neighbouring countries.

The Omda of the Beni Hussein tribe, Mahmoud Mohamed Bakhit, pointed in a press conference in Khartoum on 6 February to the proliferation of arms in the area where police remain absent, and to the inability of the authorities to secure the border with Libya.

The area used to be controlled by camel-herding (Abbala) Rizeigat militants. In July 2015, the Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC), headed by former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal, claimed that its combatants, mainly belonging to the Rizeigat Mahameed clan, took control of the Jebel ‘Amer gold mine.