SLM Minawi calls on Egypt to support Darfur peace
July 6, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Minni Minawi, the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) who signed a deal with Khartoum to end the conflict in the western region of Darfur, on July 6 called on Egypt to pursue its support of peace efforts.
“We have asked Egypt to support the efforts to achieve stability and to help with the funds for the reconstruction,” said Minawi after meeting with Egytian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in Cairo.
Minawi assured that his group will do “everything possible to ensure the implementation of the peace deal fully.”
On May 5, a larger faction of the SLM led by Minawi signed a peace deal with Khartoum in the Nigerian capital Abuja to bring an end to a civil war in the western Sudanese region that left between 180,000 and 300,000 dead and more than 2.4 million people displaced.
A faction of the SLM led by Abdelwahid al-Nur and another group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have refused to sign the accord, saying it did not meet all their demands.
For his part, Abul Gheit reiterated his call for all parties to sign the agreement.
He added that Egypt was ready to help “all the parties who have signed the peace agreement with the implementation” and to “participate in the Darfur reconstruction efforts.”
On his arrival at Cairo airport July 5, Minawi told reporters that clashes in the Darfur town of Kordofan which killed 12 people on July 3 were “a security issue not a political one.”
He called on Chad and Khartoum to stop supporting certain groups “in order to achieve stability in the country.”
(ST)