Insecurity in Darfur demands attention

The Sudanese interior minister, Maj-Gen Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Husayn, has said his ministry will act on a spate of armed robberies in Darfur, western Sudan. The minister said in a briefing to the National Assembly that his office was committed to curbing armed robberies in Darfur, by “training, reinforcing, and effectively equipping” the police, the ‘Al-Sahafah’ newspaper said on 19 April. Local media reported on 18 April that the governor of Southern Darfur State had appealed for help with insecurity in the region. The insecurity in Darfur was linked to “arms smuggling and proliferation of small arms in the region”, Muhammad Dirdiery, spokesman of the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi told IRIN. Darfur has a long border with Chad and the Central African Republic. Tribal militias using small arms raided each other, he said. This, coupled with a “serious humanitarian situation” in the area, had contributed to the current insecurity, he told IRIN. Dirdiery said the government was “strengthening and reinforcing the security forces in the region.”