‘Raids and siege tactics’ to be used in North Darfur arms and vehicle collection

The Chairman of the High Committee for the collection of weapons and unlicensed vehicles has said in the Khartoum that “the forced collection of weapons through raids and siege will be carried out decisively in all the targeted states in the coming days”.

This was announced yesterday by Ahmed Abdallah El Naw, chairman of the High Committee after the regular meeting of the committee at the Republican Palace under the chairmanship of Sudan’s Vice-President Hasabo Abdelrahman.

El Naw said that the imposition of the prestige of the state is a primary objective of the weapons collection, which will be “carried out decisively, especially in the areas of Kabkabiya and Kutum after the attack carried out by a group led by El Safana which was defeated.

El Naw was referring to an incident that closed the market of Kutum on Monday, when a group of rebel militants led by Ali Rizgallah El Safana allegedly took goods from a shop and did not pay.

The attackers fled when a large force of paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) entered the town.

El Naw stressed that “the military security committee has all the means to start the second phase of the collection of weapons”.

Military support

In total, 12,500 Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militiamen have been deployed to North Darfur with the purpose to assist in the forced collection of illegal weapons from civilians and the control of illegal vehicles. The deadline for people to voluntarily hand in their weapons ends tomorrow.

The arrival of the paramilitary force, operating with the title 'New Dawn', may lead to an explosion of the situation in North Darfur, claimed the Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC) led by the former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal. “The militias of the 'New Dawn' arrived in Kutum yesterday. But they do not intimidate us, and we are ready to confront them if they attack our sites,” the movement announced last week.

‘A ruse’

Opposition forces have condemned the campaign. In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Abdelwahid El Nur, head of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW), said he considers the disarmament campaign launched by Khartoum “a ruse to dismantle the camps by force”.