Vehicle registration programme to start in Darfur

The committee for legalisation and adjustment of the status of vehicles in South Darfur has announced the start of an inventory and registration programme for vehicles without customs documents.

The programme will run from 5 to 11 November. A similar programme was also announced for North Darfur this week.

In June, roads in South Darfur were checked by military and customs personnel for hijacked and smuggled vehicles.

The committee has called on people who possess non-registered vehicles to produce their identity documents such as national number and other documents. The committee said that whoever does not comply on time will lose their right to customs clearance in addition to legal accountability.

The customs services estimate that there are more than 1,000 stolen and hijacked vehicles in Darfur. These fall into two main categories: those owned by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, and those have been brought in from Central Africa, Libya, and Chad and popularly known as ‘Boko Haram’. Buyers of such vehicles in South Darfur complained last September that the state government had not licensed them thus far.

The Deputy Chief of Customs, Maj. Genn Khalil Basha Sirene, said the vehicles will be inventorised, starting with registration and screening for one week and ending with a payment period, of 15 days. The committee will depend on Interpol lists of stolen vehicles from outside Sudan.

Chairman of the police committee, Lt. Col. Omar El Mukhtar Mohamed Nur said that the movement of the vehicles is prohibited until that time. Otherwise they will be dealt with as smuggled commodity in accordance with the Customs Act.

Mohamed Nur said they “aim to fill the security gap and impose the prestige of the State and the Law” by the inventory.