Clashes between rival criminal gangs in northern Sudan have left eight people dead in the latest sign of rising crime in parts of the country as the civil war rages on unabated.
Fourteen others were wounded in the clashes in Al Dabah before authorities issued a ban on carrying arms inside the town, said police chief Brig Youssef Karkasawi.
He said the gangs are involved in gun and drug-running as well as smuggling, and that police reinforcements from elsewhere in Sudan's Northern State have been sent to Al Dabah to help restore order.
Al Dabah resident Watheq Abdel Baset said the town has been plagued by deadly clashes between rival gangs for more than two years.
"The authorities order a ban on carrying firearms inside the town every time there are clashes, but nothing happens," Mr Abdel Baset told The National.
"It has become very worrying because the clashes take place inside residential neighbourhoods and they terrify our women and children."
Al Dabah is close to a crossroads that leads to the western region of Darfur, the central Kordofan region and the triangle to the north where the borders of Libya, Sudan and Egypt meet. It has recently been home to members of armed groups fighting on the side of the Sudanese Armed Forces against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the civil war that broke out in April 2023.
Residents have been complaining about the presence of armed gangs in the town, demanding that authorities order them to leave.
Their complaints mirror those aired by residents of the capital Khartoum, where inhabitants say they are intimidated and sometimes harassed by armed men belonging to volunteer units allied with the army.
"There are very few people now living in Khartoum. There are no services and long power outages," said a resident of Khartoum, one of three Nile-side cities that make up the capital's greater region commonly referred to as just Khartoum.
The other two cities - Omdurman and Bahri - are much busier than Khartoum, with tens of thousands returning to their homes there after having been displaced in the early stages of the war.
"Armed groups roam the city in four-wheel cars and there are too many checkpoints," said the resident, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Charities and foreign governments have repeatedly raised concerns over a rise in crime since Sudan's civil war started, particularly theft.
The war between the army and the RSF started after months of tension between them over their relative place in a future democratic Sudan. Nearly 40 months later, the army controls the capital as well as the northern, eastern and central regions, while the RSF holds sway over Darfur, Kordofan and parts of the southern Blue Nile state.
Tens of thousands have been killed, about 14 million displaced the world's worst humanitarian crisis has been created, with an estimated 20 million people grappling with hunger.
