South Darfur customs suspend used vehicle imports

The South Darfur customs police suspended the licensing procedures for the import of used vehicles from neighbouring countries last week.

On 26 July, the newly sworn-in South Darfur government ratified the import of vehicles from Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) with a customs fee reduction of less than 50 percent of the vehicles’ value. This constitutes an exception to the Sudanese Customs Act, which prohibits importing cars produced before 2014, but could be passed under the state’s Emergency Law.

A South Darfur state official told the press in Nyala, capital of South Darfur, on Thursday that for 90 percent of the vehicles procured from neighbouring countries the ownership cannot be identified, does not have owners and Ward certificates and do not have any of the documents that prove their ownership.

This prompted the customs police to demand an official acknowledgement from the car owners that they bought the vehicles without receiving the purchase documents, to be verified by authentication court in Nyala.

A customs officer told Radio Dabanga from the South Darfur capital that the traffic police have informed the people in the state that after Sunday unauthorised vehicles will be confiscated.

He said that the customs police issued licences for about 3,000 vehicles so far. “Most of the vehicles came from the CAR”.

In late July, several South Darfuris told Radio Dabanga that the permission for the import of older models of vehicles with custom fees reduction is considered a reward for the militiamen who used them during the civil war in the neighbouring country”. The vehicles “in fact belong to the CAR government, traders, and citizens and were stolen during the chaos of the civil war”.

In December 2012 fighting erupted in CAR between the CAR government’s former Séléka coalition of rebel groups, who are mainly from the Muslim minority, and the mainly Christian anti-balaka coalition. In January 2014, President Djotodia resigned and was replaced by Catherine Samba-Panza, but the conflict continued.