Authorities in Sudan’s South Darfur State said security measures were underway to secure the harvest season.
Agriculture Minister Mohamed Ahmed Dafallah said the decision came after a number of farmers demanded from the State government measures to preserve their farms from repeated attacks by herders every harvest time.
In a statement to Radio Tamazuj on Saturday, Dafallah said the State head of civil administration instructed the formation of a high-level committee tasked with securing the harvest season and resolving issues among the farmers and the cattle keepers.
Dafallah revealed that there were forces concerned with securing the agricultural season from among the Civilian Protection Forces, whose work would be launched in the coming days under the supervision of the civilian government.
“The committee is informed due to “unfortunate” attacks that sometimes occur on harvests and on the farmers,” he explained.
“We have taken necessary measures to prevent these attacks this year,” Dafallah added, explaining the extent of the challenges they were facing, including “a lack of means of movement and resources”.
A farmer from the Derib Al-Reeh area in the Bilail locality, Adam Abdul Rahman Ahmed, appealed to the authorities to address the recurring problems during the harvests.
He explained that securing the agricultural season so far was going well.
“The problems always occur at harvest time due to the early shooting of livestock owners on their farms.”
Another farmer, Halima Mohammed, said that this year she was able to plant only one acre of sorghum, and that the security and economic conditions prompted them to plant small areas, unlike previous years.
“This year, we only planted a little because we are afraid of the farms being destroyed by the cattle.”