Drugs… the Parallel War in Sudan!!

 Portsudan: Ahmed Omar Khojali

A symposium was recently organized in the administrative capital, Portsudan, on the drug militia and the parallel war it is waging against Sudanese youth. The symposium was organized by “Bilady” Radio. It discussed the phenomenon of the drugs widespread and the increasing number of drug addicts.

The speakers also touched on the role of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in this matter by providing drugs and making them a means of attracting  recruited soldiers, in addition to destroying prisons and releasing thousands of those tried on charges of drug use and trafficking.

Militia Drug Manufacturing

The Director of Drug Combating Directorate in the Red Sea Police Forces, Colonel Police Adam Gedo, said that the drug situation in the state reflects the position of all of Sudan due to the state’s economic and political importance after it recently became the administrative capital of the country. He noted that the vastness and large number of sea and land crossings made it difficult to track smugglers and bringing drugs into the country, pointing out that the length of the Red Sea State coast is 800 km with 60 islands, six ports, an airport and two border crossings. He asserted that the militia’s use and manufacture of drugs were a reality before the outbreak of the war.

Colonel Gedo presented statistics for periods during the past three years that showed a steady increase in the number of reports against those interested in trade, smuggling and drug use, including women.

For his part, the Director of Media and Public Relations at the Interior Ministry, Major General Police Ibrahim Mustafa, said that the outlaw Rapid Support Forces contributed to the augmentation of spread of drugs among youth, calling on researchers to take a deep look at the conspiracies of the intelligence services and their efforts to distract the Sudanese people and waste their strength through drugs and lose of their values ​​of culture and religion.

Numbers of Addicts

The representative of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Arej Majzoub, says that drugs of all kinds take away the mind, warning of the large increase in the number of young addicts (ice and heroin). She stressed that the destruction of the outlaw RSF militia of treatment and psychological institutions has deprived several addicts of treatment. She said that the psychological pressures caused by the militia’s violations and cases of rape of women in a number of areas in Sudan have contributed to the increase in the number of addicts.

Only Four Beds

The Deputy Director of the Psychiatric Hospital in Portsudan points to the large number of addicts and those in need of treatment, stating that the only psychiatric hospital in Portsudan contains only four beds, calling for increasing funding for psychiatric treatment institutions.