Security trench around Nyala prompts citizen complaints

Residents complained about a trench that is being dug around the South Darfur capital to protect the city from recurring carjackings and other threats. Half of the trench is being dug by the government and the other half by the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).A number of citizens living in neighborhoods north of where the security trench will pass have complained about it for safety reasons, according to authorities in the state. The residents said that the ditch has become a major threat to the lives of their children and their livestock after the drowning of the child Abdullah Isaac Khairallah, aged ten years, besides also the loss of a number of livestock.

Another concern, according to a local source, is that there are 1500 residential plots that have formally became part of the trench without compensation to the owners.