South Darfur govt. lifts duties on ‘Boko Haram’ cars

The South Darfur state government has lifted customs duties on vehicles brought in from Chad or other African countries.

A group of lawyers in South Darfur stated that the taxes imposed on the “Boko Haram cars”, as vehicles smuggled from Chad, Niger and a number of west African countries are called in Darfur, are illegal.

The duties ranged from SDG 5,000 ($ 275*) to SDG 7,000 ($ 285), one of the lawyers told Radio Dabanga.

The imposition of custom fees was not authorised by the state legislature, he said. “Therefore we called on the South Darfur Parliament to stop these illegal fees and protect the purses of the car owners”.

According to the South Darfur authorities, owners of 7,432 vehicles are currently waiting to enter the customs clearance process.

About 6,000 vehicles have been licensed since South Darfur began a major car licensing campaign in October 2016. The total amount collected is more than SDG 52 billion ($ 2,850).

For years, the authorities in Darfur are trying to curb the rampant insecurity in the region. Unregistered vehicles (imported or militia-owned), the wearing of a turban covering the face (kadamool) and the carrying of weapons by civilians have all been banned.

In August last year, army forces and the Rapid Support Forces, Sudan’s main militia, began implementing a major disarmament campaign in Darfur. In end December however, the Governor of North Darfur acknowledged that the arms collection did not lead to the planned results that far. He pointed to the large spread of weapons in the state, and stressed that there was “still a long way to go”.

* Based on the official US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)