UNAMID chief discusses Darfur fight with ex-rebel leader

May 19, 2009 (EL FASHER) – Rodolphe Adada, head of the UN-African Union peacekeepers in Darfur (UNAMID), met today with an ex-rebel leader whose forces where involved in fighting at Um Baru last week, far northwest of El Fasher.

Minni Minawi, the ex-rebel who serves as Senior Assistant to the Sudanese President, won major concessions from the Sudanese government in a peace deal signed in Abuja in 2006, but then lost significant parts of his field command in desertions during a period of spiralling violence after the pact.

He last year left his post in the Sudanese capital in a return to Darfur meant to signal his dissatisfaction with the level of implementation of this agreement.

Today’s meeting focused on the latest developments in Darfur, particularly the clashes in North Darfur last week with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which subsequently on Saturday overran army forces at Kornoi, the next town over from Um Baru.

As non-signatories to the Abuja agreement and potentially participants in a rival peace process, the JEM commanders have little incentive for cooperation with Minnawi but they have sought to lure away his armed followers.

The majority of both Minnawi’s forces and those of the JEM are drawn from the Zaghawa tribe, which spans both sides of the Sudan-Chad border. Some of his fighters, known as the Sudan Liberation Army-Minnawi (SLA/MM), were involved in a tense handover of the town of Muhajeriya to a column of JEM forces last January.

Minnawi and the UNAMID Joint Special Representative also discussed rising tensions between Sudan and Chad, whose leader also speaks the Zaghawa language. Chad has admitted to undertaking air strikes in Darfur in recent days, in retaliation for an invasion of Chad launched from Darfur on

UNAMID had reported that Sudanese government aircraft bombed targets around Um Baru last week including on Monday and Thursday.

Adada today met also with the African Union High Level Panel on Darfur, at the start of the second visit to the region of the panel.

Led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki and also comprising former Burundian president Pierre Buyoya and former Nigerian president Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the AU delegation was received at the Mission’s headquarters in El Fasher, North Darfur.

(ST)