‘Football is the best way to unite my people’

THE Governor of North Darfur, Osman Mohammed Yusuf Kebir is committed to having this year’s Kagame Club Championships held in his home town of Al Fashir as he bids to unite the people of his community.Speaking to Times Sport over the weekend, Kebir said, “I want to say that we are now ready to host a successful tournament. I want to use this tournament to bring the people of Darfur together.”“Football is the best way to bring people and tribes together and united under one group especially after the war. I want other people from Cecafa nations to come and witness the real Darfur not Darfur usually reported in the media,” added Kebir.Observers are questioning whether it is safe to hold a major sporting event in the area. Darfur has been a conflict area for a long time, torn by a civil war that started in 2003. But change is apparent now that a peace agreement is in place to curb the violence that has characterised the area. There has been less fighting lately.However, Kebir said that besides having good and a disciplined security force in the area, Al Fashir is a peaceful region. “I hope that no single security scare will be reported during the entire tournament because our security is very good and alert.”The hosting government is certain on beefing up the security during the entire tournament but even Cecafa is working hard to secure the support of the AU-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), to ensure peace during the two-week championships.Nicholas Musonye, the Cecafa Secretary General applauded the commitment and urge from Khartoum’s top leadership, Darfur’s State Governor and its Ministers showed in preparation for the upcoming tournament.“There is a lot of improvement in terms of the aspects we had discussed especially in regard to renovations of the stadia, training grounds which I think are still not much convincing but all and above there is some improvement that has been made,” he noted.He continued, “The commitment of the Governor and his people is encouraging and it will be very unfortunate for us not to deliver a good competition. It is a win-win situation for all of us [Cecafa, Sudan Football Association and the Governor of North Darfur].”Critical issues to sort out by the hosts, include, arrangements at the stadia, dressing rooms, availability of internet for the media, training fields where few adjustments are needed before the start of the competition on June 18.

Sports

‘Football is the best way to unite my people’