A customs court in the White Nile has sentenced five Sudanese traders to one year imprisonment and a fine of SDG2,000 ($350) for smuggling goods into South Sudan.
The five traders including two minors were arrested by “anti-smuggling police” forces at Goz El Tomat village in the Um Jalala area at the border. Two tractors and a trailer loaded with commodities were confiscated.
Several citizens from the area expressed their outrage about the decision taken by the court against “innocent traders”. In his remarks to the press in Khartoum, Omda Mubashar Mohamed Abdallah from Um Jalala, said that the confiscated goods were meant for local consumption. The vehicles were loaded with cooking oil, flour, chillies, and okra, he explained, meant to be sold in particular to El Silem nomadic tribes in the areas of Um Jalala and Rawat, currently residing in the southern part of the White Nile.
The detained five traders, including two 16-year-old boys, were arrested in an area far away from South Sudan, Abdallah said.
File photo
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