Nyala , April 22(Darfur 24)
Rapid Support Forces (RSF ) members participated in large-scale thefts that affected citizens’ homes in the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State.
The Rapid Support Forces strengthened their security grip on the city of Nyala, which they took control of on October 29, 2023, in conjunction with their implementation of an arrest campaign accompanied by the establishment of bases to search people.
Sumaya Muhammad al-Hassan, a citizen of the city of Nyala, told “Darfur 24” that armed men, using “taktuk,” stormed their house in the Imtadad neighborhood in the center of the city and ripped out the doors, iron sheets , windows, and ceramics.
She added: “When the neighbors spoke to them, they told them “stay in your homes only.”
Citizen Yassef Omar revealed to Darfur 24 that the homes of army personnel were stolen by members of the Rapid Support Forces under the pretext that they were the homes of army personnel.
He said that his brother’s house, who is in Saudi Arabia with the coalition forces, was completely vandalized and all the doors, windows, zinc, and bricks were removed. Explaining that all of Al-Ashlaq’s homes became deserted after they were stolen.
Volunteer activist Ayman Braima spoke through a tweet in his Nyala group on Facebook, about a number of houses in the city of Nyala being subjected to the theft and looting of zinc, doors and windows without legal accountability.
Dozens of people commented on the post and confirmed the phenomenon of thefts in neighborhoods in the absence of their owners after the displacement of a number of residents inside and outside the country following the battles that Nyala witnessed since mid-April between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces.
He told eyewitnesses to “Darfur 24” that the neighborhoods of Al-Imtidad, Al-Mazad, Al-Jumhuriya, Al-Cinema, Sham Al-Nessim, Al-Istibaliyah, Ishlaq, police and army in the center of the city, and the neighborhoods of Al-Jir and Al-Wahah in the west of the city were subjected to extensive theft and looting of homes.
The merchant in the Nyala market, Sheikh Omar Ibrahim, confirmed that some individuals, accompanied by an armed guard, dismantled the zinc and doors east of the Bank of Sudan and in the middle of the market. He said that his commercial shop found the doors had been stolen.
A senior source in the Rapid Support Forces, who preferred to withhold his name, told “Darfur 24” that there were thefts in the aforementioned neighborhoods in which elements affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces and some weak-minded citizens and members of the army participated.
He explained that they recorded more than 91 reports of home thefts, and 53 of the accused were arrested, including army personnel and some stragglers.
He justified the increase in cases of looting and theft of homes due to the poor performance of the police in covering the city and the lack of sufficient forces in the police stations to carry out the tasks of securing neighborhoods.
He added: “We have in front of the Rapid Support Forces leadership hundreds of stolen items that were recovered from some vulnerable people, and we need the cooperation of citizens to immediately report cases of theft in neighborhoods.”
He stated that a number of outposts were established in the center, east and north of the city to verify the permits issued for the transfer of property and to prevent the departure of any furniture or building materials outside Nyala without prior permission from the legal advisor for rapid support in Nyala.