Sudanese security forces capture smuggling gang in North Darfur

Sudanese security forces said they have captured a gang of smugglers while they were attempting to take migrants across the border to Libya on 2 March 2019.

North Darfur governor Lieutenant Colonel Naeem Khidir said a military intelligence division caught five smugglers, while they were transporting 39 Sudanese migrants to Libya, widely seen as a gateway to Europe. Details on what happened to those caught were not clear.  

Sudan Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the main government militia, has been actively capturing smugglers and returning irregular migrants from the border between Sudan and Libya in an effort to stop irregular migration.

In September 2018, the RSF captured 154 irregular migrants as they attempted to reach Libya through the town of Malha. Most of the captured migrants were young Sudanese men aged between 22 and 26 years. The Director of the RSF’s Guidance and Services Department told the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that their preliminary investigations indicated that the young men are members of “terrorist organisations and negative movements.” The group were transferred to the El Jeili military camp near Khartoum.

Sudan has been cracking down on human trafficking and irregular migration since 2016. The efforts were born out of the Khartoum process, established in 2014 between 37 European Union (EU) and African states. The platform for political cooperation aims to fight trafficking and smuggling in the Horn of Africa.

In July 2018, the country’s anti-trafficking committees met in Khartoum to develop a national anti-trafficking strategy with funding from the EU. Representatives of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya took part in the conference.

This came a few days after it was reported that at least 1,500 Sudanese migrants detained in the Libyan city of Tajoura, started a hunger strike. The strike was in protest of prolonged detention without charge or trial. Radio Dabanga reported there are an estimated 221,500 Sudanese nationals in Libya.

Over the course of 2018, Sudan freed hundreds of victims of human trafficking, mostly migrants from Eritrea who were held for ransom by traffickers.

TMP – 11/03/2019

Photo: Claudio Vidri/ Shutterstock. A village in the Sahara in Sudan.