The multiplicity of armies.. Would they pose a threat to the Darfur region?
Abdulrahman Al-Ajib
After the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) extended their control over the States (East, West, Central and Southern Darfur), political and military realities have begun to reshape, while the security situation in the Darfur region remains alarming and the situation there is becoming increasingly complex and dangerous. Despite the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement, the reality on the ground foreshadows an explosion in the absence of security arrangements and the collection of arms from militias and tribes.
Darfur now arguably has more than eight armies (the army, rapid support, the JEM army, the Minawi Movement Army, the SLM Transitional Council Army, the Sudanese Liberation Forces Caucus Army and the Sudanese Alliance Movement Army, and the SLM command of Abdulwahid Mohamed Nur alongside tribal armies). It seems that this reality will make Darfurs region a powder barrel as soon as it explodes, and it will inevitably eliminate green and land.
The border areas bordering Chad, Central Africa and Libya continued to experience continuous movement of entry and exit, with female followers reporting the presence of armed gangs in the areas of Tina, Milit, Umm Dakhan, Umm Daafous and El Geneina, which engage in activities including the trade of arms, drugs and human beings, as well as murder and the smuggling of food goods.
According to the Sudan-Chad Border Protection Agreement, under which the Sudanese Chadian Joint Forces were formed and could intervene under the agreement to chase the rebels of the two countries, the areas of Western Darfur located on the long border between the two countries are witnessing security breakthroughs and intensive activity of armed groups active in looting and killing of citizens. s armed forces ", which may have been involved in fighting alongside the Rapid Support Forces against the Sudanese army.
Darfur has long known arms, and the Chadian war has contributed to the massive flow of weapons into the Darfur region, which possesses a vast and open border with Chad. The regime of ousted President Omar al-Bashir armed some tribes after the war in Darfur in 2003 and later militias from these tribes, such as Border Patrol and Rapid Support Forces, were formed to fight armed movements and the Darfur region was known for the proliferation of weapons, which had previously been openly sold on public markets, The munitions were placed in the packaging in which the corn beans were sold.
An international report earlier monitored the volume of weapons circulating in Darfur by about 2 million, but it is estimated that the quantity of weapons deployed in Darfur exceeds 5 million, although local estimates indicate that the number is much more, as the acquisition of arms per family has become necessary for the protection of ones own and property.
Apart from the weapons handed over by the former regime to certain tribes, the main source of weapons in Darfur is Libya, following the fall of Muammar al-Qadhafi in 2011. Almost two years ago, the United Nations alerted in a report that Libya had the worlds largest stockpile of uncontrolled weapons, equivalent to 150 to 200 tons throughout the country.
Last February, a United Nations Security Council panel of experts said that arms trade activity involving rockets In the Darfur regions local markets, the Panel of Experts on the Sudan submitted a report to the United Nations Security Council. (Merchants engaged across borders and originating in the supply of many types of arms and ammunition to local markets in Darfur at uniform prices) He noted that the weapons supplied included (automatic firearms, rocket-propelled grenades, handguns, long-range high-precision rifles and surface-to-air missiles).
The Panel stressed that the proliferation of weapons and ammunition in Darfur posed a threat to security in the region, explaining that (the presence and use of weapons in most areas of the region remained prominent in multiple attacks between tribes and armed robbery): (The severity of attacks and reprisals within communities throughout Darfur clearly demonstrated that the circulation and proliferation of weapons is a key factor in creating a separatist and conflict-driven atmosphere and must be urgently controlled).
According to the Panel, the slow implementation of the Peace Agreement will seriously hamper any attempts to establish control over tribal weapons and (Unless the factors causing non-State arms acquisition in Darfur are addressed, the tribes will resist any arms control measures.) The report revealed that (formerly tribes on the boiled side under the occupation of their territories and limited armed capacity, had begun to organize themselves in order to protect themselves and attract weapons) The Group of Experts noted that (as a result of the Government of the Sudans inability to protect it, the attempts of communities to own their own security do not bode well for the stability of Darfur).
The geographical reality of the Darfur region, which is aligned with the States of South Sudan, Chad, Central Africa and Libya and continues to experience occasional armed conflicts, has made the Darfur region vulnerable to a serious and potentially destabilizing threat unless the Sudanese Government takes decisive precautionary measures to control the Sudans borders with those States from which arms flow into the region.
