Khartoum, Manawashi, Mukjar, and El Fasher — The head of the Justice and Equality Movement and Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim blamed the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the country’s growing insecurity. In a speech during the movement’s annual iftar in Khartoum on Saturday, he said, “The political turmoil has led to security turmoil in the country. We hold our brothers in the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces responsible for the security in the country.” He urged the leaders of the SAF and the RSF to “put aside egoism and work towards a stable future.”
The North Darfur governor also called for the deployment of additional security forces in the region. In an interview with Radio Dabanga in early February, rebel leader Minni Minawi, Governor of Darfur, said the Sovereignty Council and the security apparatus bear the main responsibility for the deterioration of security in Darfur. Both Ibrahim and Minawi did not oppose the October 2021 coup led by SAF Commander‑in‑Chief and President of the Sovereignty Council Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan. While other officials resigned after the coup, Minawi remained Governor of Darfur and Ibrahim stayed Minister of Finance. “They are unable to see that there was a revolution,” Yassir Arman, founder of the SPLM‑N Democratic Revolutionary Movement and spokesperson for the FFC‑CC, told Radio Dabanga on Saturday.
Recent attacks underscore the worsening situation. On Saturday, a truck driver was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen east of Manawashi, South Darfur. Sheikh Hammad of the Manawashi Community Protection Network said the assailants, on motorcycles, opened fire on the vehicle, seriously injuring driver Abdelmonim Mohamed, who was taken to Nyala Teaching Hospital. In the same area, about 22 km east of Manawashi, armed men attacked two displaced men riding a tuk‑tuk loaded with firewood, beating them with whips and robbing them.
In Central Darfur, passengers on a bus and a small vehicle were also robbed on Saturday. Activist Adam Bakheet reported that the bus was intercepted by men on camels on the road between Nyala and Mukjar; all passengers were robbed, but a police force managed to seize four camels before the gunmen fled. On the Mukjar‑Garsila road, an armed group stopped a small passenger vehicle, seized the passengers’ belongings, and fled.
Violent incidents have also claimed the lives of senior army officers. A senior officer was killed by unidentified gunmen in Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur, on Thursday, and another officer was shot dead in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, last week.
In response, the acting governor of North Darfur, Nimir Abdelrahman—former head of the Sudan Liberation Movement‑Transitional Council (SLM‑TC)—called for more forces to protect the population, especially farmers. Speaking at the conclusion of the first regional agricultural forum in El Fasher on Saturday, Abdelrahman urged the rapid deployment of security forces to secure farmlands, attract investors, rehabilitate administrations across the five Darfur states, and improve the working environment.
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