The security committee in Sudan’s South Darfur State has overturned a decision to allocate land occupied by Al-Tabaldiya Market in Nyala for the construction of a private school, allowing the historical market to remain, in recognition of its importance to residents.
The decision was taken on Monday following a field visit by the committee to the market, located in Block Seven of the Al-Wahda neighborhood in southern Nyala.
Speaking to the media at the market, Musa Al-Sheikh, Executive Director of Nyala Locality, said the committee had inspected the site before deciding to preserve the market and revoke the planning ministry’s decision to allocate the land to a private school.
“The state security committee visited Al-Tabaldiya Market and subsequently decided that it should remain at its current location, reversing the Ministry of Planning’s allocation of the land for a private school,” Al-Sheikh said. “The market has existed since 1980 and serves an essential need for residents, particularly as the nearest alternative market in Nyala is approximately five kilometers away.”
He added that the committee had directed the relevant authorities to compensate the registered landowner by allocating an alternative plot elsewhere.
Al-Sheikh reassured residents that the market would remain at its present location.
He also urged the Ministry of Planning to recognize the importance of public spaces and markets to local communities and refrain from allocating such areas to private individuals in future urban planning decisions.
Meanwhile, Salah Al-Mouj, chairman of the South Darfur State Security Committee, described Al-Tabaldiya as one of the oldest markets in the area and an essential commercial and community hub.
He said a substantial proportion of the local population depended on the market to purchase everyday necessities and earn a livelihood, adding that it helped ease congestion at other markets in the area.
Al-Mouj accused what he described as unscrupulous individuals of attempting to change the land’s designated use from a public market to a private school.
He said the committee had therefore decided to revoke the allocation in the public interest.
The decision comes against a backdrop of encroachment on public spaces and roads in Nyala, where unauthorized developments have affected several public areas and major thoroughfares.
In response to these encroachments, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Presidential Council, previously issued directives ordering the removal of a number of shops and houses built on public spaces or obstructing major roads in the city.
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