Sudan receives 125 looted vehicles from Chad

The Sudanese embassy in N’Djamena announced yesterday it received 125 vehicles that were looted in Sudan and smuggled into Chad during the war. The handover is part of ongoing judicial and security cooperation between the two nations.

In a statement seen by Radio Dabanga, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Sudanese Embassy, Ambassador Abdallah Abakar Saleh, said that the majority of the 125 recovered vehicles were luxury four-wheel drives. They were handed over to the embassy by Chadian police in coordination with Interpol.

Ambassador Saleh praised the cooperation of Chadian security agencies and the Sudanese police cohort participating in the Interpol mission from Port Sudan.

The ambassador called on the owners of the stolen vehicles to come forward to reclaim them. He explained that the embassy will attach identification cards with the full details of each vehicle to ensure they are returned to their rightful owners.

He noted that the first batch of recovered vehicles remains in the embassy’s custody, “creating an additional burden of storage and security costs”. He confirmed that more vehicles are expected to be handed over and urged for swift coordination to transport them to Sudan.

Abuzar Tarig Hamza, a consultant for Golden Arrow Ltd., commended the Chadian government’s cooperation, calling the recovery “a significant security achievement under the complex circumstances facing the region”. He also praised the Sudanese Embassy in N’Djamena for its persistent follow-up on the matter.

Vehicle theft

Reports of widespread vehicle theft – particularly by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – have persisted since the early months of the war.

In December 2023, Radio Dabanga reported that RSF troops were “stealing anything they can lay their hands on” in Khartoum, including private property and vehicles. Some residents resorted to burying their cars to prevent them from being seized.

The police at the time said it received more than 29,000 reports of vehicle theft and had notified Interpol of vehicles that were smuggled abroad.

In early August 2023, the Sudanese Golden Arrow Group, the exclusive agent for Toyota, Hino, and Yamaha in the country, reported the theft of 1,192 Toyota vehicles, 173 Hino trucks, and a large number of motorcycles from its showrooms and warehouses in Khartoum and Khartoum North (Bahri) following the RSF’s advance into the capital.

International organisations were also affected. In February 2024, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that two of its vehicles were stolen during an armed raid by ten unidentified gunmen on its medical centre in Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur.

Sudan’s border with Chad has long served as a conduit for illicit trade in arms, ammunition, and contraband goods. Dabanga has previously reported on RSF supply routes extending through western Darfur into eastern Chad, where porous borders and limited oversight have enabled the movement of fighters and stolen assets.