Chad’s Deby invites SLM’S Abelwahed for talks on Darfur

Nov 13, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The Chadian president, Idris Deby, has presented a proposal to the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Abdelwahed Mohamed al-Nur, to save Darfur from the consequences of the deteriorating security situation, .

The SLM leader, Abdelwahed arrived in Abache yesterday on board a Chadian airline in response to an invitation by President Deby to discuss differences between the two SLA factions led by al-Nur and Mini Arkoi Minawi.

According to the Khartoum based Al-Ayam, the official spokesman for Nur’s SLA faction, Ismail Omar Idris, said al-Nur was yesterday heading to the areas under SLA control in Jabal Marra from Nairobi, when he received an urgent call from President Deby to come to Abache to discuss the latest developments within the SLA following the failure to reconcile the two factions under the auspices of US Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick.

Ismail said that there was information being put out by Minawi’s faction that Abdelwahed was yesterday arrested in Al-Muharrah region but these reports are false as he is in N’djamena.

He pointed out that President Idris Deby presented a proposal to the SLM leader, Abd-al-Wahid, on how to resolve the tense situation in Darfur.

Ismail further said that al-Nur’s SLM faction had presented the African Union with the list of its members who would be attending the next round of Abuja talks due to be held on 24 Nov and that Abdelrahman Musa was leading the SLM delegation attending the workshop on resource sharing with the Sudanese government delegation which began in Nairobi yesterday.

(ST)