Sudanese rebels accused of hiring British-owned plane to ferry arms

Akhirlahzah.com, Sudanese Islamist opposition web site on September 3, 2003

The Sudanese government has reiterated its accusation against the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that it is giving support to armed groups of the Sudan’s Liberation Movement (SLM) in Darfur, western Sudan.

The minister of information, Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, warned the forces, describing this as an attempt to manipulate the country’s security and authority.

The Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) quoted unidentified sources as saying that the plane which was fired at by the armed forces on Thursday 28 August in northern Darfur belonged to the company called MIC Group, and was owned by a UK resident called Nick Wilson. The sources added that the SPLM hired the plane to carry weapons, ammunition and people, evacuate the injured and make routine flights between Lokichoggio in northwestern Kenya and several places in northern Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile in southern Sudan.

The same sources told SMC, which is a semi governmental Agency, that the plane made more than 12 flights from SPLM controlled areas to several places in Darfur and southern Upper Nile, carrying ammunition and war material, in addition to groups of armed militia from Darfur to be trained in SPLM training camps in northern Bahr al-Ghazal.

According to the same sources the SMC said: the plane was used to bring back militia members after their training in Darfur, in addition to taking some Dinka -a tribe in southern Sudan- leaders to the region of Jabal Sarirah in Western Darfur State to participate in the training of other militia groups. [….]