Tribal leader arrested for fight with Sudan commander

A leader of the El Mahriya tribe has been arrested following a clash with the Rapid Support Forces commander-in-chief in North Darfur on Saturday.

The security authorities have taken Omda Mustafa El Dud Mahdi, Nazir of El Mahriya, into custody. He clashed with RSF Brig. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (nicknamed 'Hemeti'), reportedly over the demands of development in tribal areas in North Darfur.

Omda Mustafa “is the head of the ignored section of the Sudanese desert”, the United Revolutionary Forces Front (URFF) said in a statement on Monday in which it condemned his arrest.

The arrest “targets and confiscates our people’s legitimate rights to live in dignity”, the front said. The URFF is said to represent the nomadic Arab tribes that claim not to be involved with the government-backed militias known as Janjaweed in the first years of the conflict in Darfur.

RSF leader Hemeti is a former Janjaweed militia leader and Border Guard commander, who now reports to the National Intelligence and Security Service. The first troops of the paramilitary RSF were recruited in 2013, and many are Darfuris who have come from Hemeti’s clan and other clans within the Abbala Rizeigat tribe, that is primarliy based in North Darfur.