West Darfur governor says states’ division ‘unfair’

The governor of West Darfur is discontent how the region’s provinces were divided in 2012 leaving his state with a large budget deficit due to resources’ separation.    West Darfur was divided into East and West Darfur following a presidential decree to bring public services closer to the people and overcome local grievances. Calling the division “unfair”, Governor Haider Galu Kuma said it is causing the state a monthly deficit of 1,300 billion Sudanese pounds ($295 million). The governor made the declarations when speaking to a West Darfur crowd in an event organized at the Omdurman Hall in Khartoum on Sunday.In the occasion, he also denounced the inflated diyya payments in the province and demanded the strengthening of security and the collection of weapons. Meanwhile the Chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) Council Sultan Saad Bahraldeen said El Geneina, West Darfur’s capital, is “the most backward city in Darfur”. Bahraldeen, who is the sultan of the Masalit tribes of West Darfur, demanded the provision of basic needs to the state’s population.File photo (Albert González Farran/ UNAMID)