Police services resume in South Darfur capital after seven-month hiatus

The police in Nyala, capital of South Darfur and Sudan’s second-largest city, have resumed operations for the first time since their withdrawal from the city and its districts after the outbreak of the war in Sudan on April 15. The force primarily operates within the central and southern divisions of Nyala, capital of South Darfur.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander in South Darfur, Col Saleh El Founi, said that the police force that announced its readiness to return to work was 500 policemen strong, yet currently consists of 217 policemen.

The police withdrew from the scene in several Sudanese states immediately after the outbreak of the April 15 war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, while some police units in the capital, Khartoum, remained actively engaged in fighting in the ranks of the army.

Col El Founi pledged that the RSF “will not interfere in the work of the police, and aim to support them and stand with them to carry out their role in providing civil services to the people”.

Immediately after the RSF took control of the army command in Nyala in late October, the second commander of the RSF, Lt Gen Abdelrahim Dagalo, called on the police to return to assume their duties. Dagalo announced that Maj Gen Bashir Eisa was assigned to manage the South Darfur state police, having worked as a police officer in Nyala before being assigned to the RSF.

One police officer who returned to carry out their duties told Radio Dabanga that he “returned to serve the people of the state, who are in great need of the police at this stage.” The policeman – who preferred to withhold his name – stated that “the force that returned to work will begin its duties in the central and southern Nyala police departments”.

As reported previously by Radio Dabanga, Nyala continues to experience a complete breakdown in mobile phone and internet connections, plunging it into “a medieval communications abyss”.

After the fall of Nyala into the hands of the RSF, communications did not return to the city despite the promises of the RSF Command that it will provide all possible conditions for companies to restore service.