By Sudan Tribune,
Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (aka the Janjaweed militias), Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, said his fighters have arrested about 600 Ethiopian illegal migrants near Sudan’s border with Libya and Egypt.
Last June, hundreds of RSF elements have been deployed in the remote desert of the Northern State shortly after complaint by the governor of drug and human trafficking by the criminal networks.
On Saturday, Sudanese army’s sixth infantry division in North Darfur capital El-Fasher has celebrated the return of the RSF from the Northern State.
Speaking during the celebration, Daglo said his forces arrested about 600 illegal Ethiopian migrants and thwarted several human trafficking operations near Sudan’s border with Egypt and Libya and at Al-Nakheel area in the Sahara desert.
He pointed those illegal migrants have been handed over to the authorities in North Darfur as a prelude to repatriate them into their home country.
Daglo hailed discipline among RSF fighters, saying Sudan became a crossing point for illegal migrants seeking to travel to Europe and the United States.
He called on the West to appreciate efforts exerted by the Sudanese government to combat human trafficking and illegal migration across the Sahara.
Sudan is considered as a country of origin and transit for the illegal migration and human trafficking. Thousands of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia are monthly crossing the border into the Sudanese territories on their way to Europe through Libya or Egypt.
For his part, the commander of the sixth infantry division Ashraf Mahdi El-Rifaie said North Darfur became free of rebellion due to efforts of the Sudanese army, RSF and the rest of the regular forces.
“The RSF carried out its full role and combed the area of the rebel remnants and human traffickers” he said
He added that the RSF managed to free hundreds of foreigners from the grip of human traffickers on the desert near the Egyptian border.
Earlier this month, Daglo said his men arrested over 300 illegal immigrants heading to Libya across the remote desert of Northern State.
Earlier this year, the European Union granted a €100m development package to address the root causes of irregular migration in Sudan. The financial support came after pledge by the Sudanese government to cooperate with Brussels to stop human trafficking to Europe.
In January 2014, the Sudanese parliament approved an anti-human trafficking law which punishes those involved with human trafficking with up to 20 years imprisonment.
The RSF were originally mobilized by the Sudanese government to quell the insurgency that broke out in Sudan’s western region of Darfur in 2003.
