Sudan Urges Chad to Arrest Rustlers After Bloody Raids in West Darfur

Hemetti participate in the funerals of 18 people killed by Chadian rustlers who stolen 300 camels in West Darfur on August 5, 2022

August 5, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan called on N’Djamena to arrest Chadian assailants who killed 18 Sudanese herders and looted their livestock in West Darfur where the government struggle to restore security in the border state.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, Chadian gunmen attacked Arab nomads in Bir Saliba and Ardiba areas of West Darfur where they killed 18 people and wounded 17 others.

The attacks resulted in the rustling of about 100 camels on Wednesday and 200 camels on Thursday, a tribal leader Mahmed Saleh Kibro told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

In response, the herder tribes mobilized their tribesmen to attack the assailants after accusing the Chadian government forces of complicity with them.

An Arabe tribal body in Darfur, the Mahameed Higher Coordinating Committee, issued a statement accusing the Chadian army of protecting the assailants and blamed the Sudanese army troops for not intervening to stop the attacks.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo who is residing in West Darfur nowadays sought to defuse tensions among the herders and attended the funeral of the 18 victims.

On Friday night the Security and Defence Council held a virtual emergency meeting chaired by the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and attended by Hemetti and the West Darfur Security Committee to discuss the situation on the border with Chad.

“The Council urged the Chadian side to pursue the criminals and recover the stolen livestock as soon as possible,” reads a statement issued by the Security and Defence Council.

In addition, the meeting “urged strengthening the capabilities and role of the Sudanese-Chadian border joint forces, and controlling movements on the borders between the two countries, including the herders.

In his speech after the burial of the 18 dead bodies, Hemetti said he called for an emergency meeting for the Security and Defence Council to take the needed measures to end the “chaos” caused by the repeated attacks of the Chadian armed gangs.

He called for self-restraint and pledged that the government will protect them and return their stolen livestock.

The Sudanese tribal leaders said the Sudanese Chadian forces prevented them from crossing the border to hunt the looters on Wednesday but they did not stop their second attack on Thursday.

During the funerals, the crowd chanted slogans calling to dissolve the joint forces saying they failed to protect the Sudanese from the tribal attacks by Chadian outlaw groups.

They also called to close the border with Chad saying the situation is similar to what happened in the Fashaga when Ethiopian militiamen attacked Sudanese farmers on the border stripe.

Sudanese and Chadian senior officials this week held a series of meetings to discuss the security situation on the borders as Ndjamena expressed concerns over the possible resumption of rebel attacks after the end of the Doha process on August 8.

(ST)