PM Announces Urgent Action to Halt Encroachments on Acacia Forest

Prime Minister Dr. Kamil Idris affirmed that the Acacia Forest is a historical reserve and a national heritage site, a homeland for the people of Sudan in general and the residents of Khartoum State in particular, describing it as “Sudan’s great lung.”

This came during a field visit the Prime Minister made yesterday to the Acacia Forest in Khartoum, accompanied by his advisor Nizar Abdullah Mohammed, the Governor of Khartoum State Ahmed Osman Hamza, and the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers Ali Mohammed Ali. The delegation assessed the extent of the encroachments and damage inflicted on the forest during the war.

The Prime Minister stressed the necessity of halting the indiscriminate logging of the forest’s trees, directing the local administrations in Khartoum State and the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor the situation on the ground and prosecute the encroachers according to legal procedures. He also directed the immediate commencement of the forest’s rehabilitation and restoration to a state even better than before, so that it may once again be green, fruitful, and attractive to tourists.

He issued directives to the security and police agencies to take the necessary measures to secure the forest, in addition to tasking the competent authorities with preparing a detailed report within a month that includes the extent of the damage and an urgent action plan to rehabilitate the acacia forest.

For his part, the g

Governor of Khartoum State announced his government’s readiness to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture to develop an urgent work program to reforest the area and work to restore it to a better state than before.