Maaliya youth in East Darfur protest arrests by govt. militia

The Maaliya Youth Association has denounced “the arbitrary detention campaign” carried out by paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against 67 members of their tribe.

In a press statement on Friday, the association of Maaliya youth living in Abu Karinka, Adila, and Keleikil Abu Salama in East Darfur, strongly protest the detention of 17 Maaliya omdas and 50 other members during the past two weeks.

After renewed clashes erupted between Maaliya and Rizeigat north of Ed Daein, capital of East Darfur, on 21 and 22 July, the authorities deployed a military buffer force to separate the militants.

An unprecedented number of Rizeigat and Maaliya leaders and other tribesmen were detained. After having been convicted under the Emergency Law in East Darfur, they were sent to prisons in Khartoum and Port Sudan.

The Youth Association called on “the Presidency, the Ministries of Defence and Interior to withdraw the RSF militiamen stationed in the area as soon as possible”.

The Maaliya youth consider the militiamen of the Rapid Support Forces “biased as the majority of them are Rizeigat”, and warn for “possible retaliation actions against the Maaliya, under the pretext of restoring the Rule of Law”.

In the statement, they call on the Sudanese government “to fully assume its responsibility towards its Maaliya citizens, maintain security, and restore the Rule of Law through the deployment of neutral troops of the Sudan Armed Forces”.