Darfur rebel leader sworn in as Sudan presidential aide

Aug 7, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The only rebel leader to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in on Monday as a senior aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups said the fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.

“Let us hope that the people of Darfur will find security, stability and development, and refugees will return to villages destroyed by the war,” Minni Minnawi, leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, said in a written statement after a ceremony at President Omar el-Bashir’s palace.

The new post also makes Minnawi the head of a semiautonomous government in Darfur under the peace deal.

The conflict in Darfur began when certain non-Arab ethnic groups revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003. Arab militiamen responded with a wave of attacks. Over 200,000 civilians have died, and more than 2 million have fled their homes.

Minnawi agreed to the May peace deal, but other rebel movements have refused to sign it. Though it initially was hailed as a breakthrough, the accord has sparked months of fighting between rebel factions that has left countless dead and displaced tens of thousands of people, according to aid groups, the U.N. and African Union.

The A.U. currently operates an undermanned, under-equipped peacekeeping mission in the region and has wanted to hand things over to a bigger and more robust U.N. mission.

Minnawi said Monday he continues to support the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to the region, but el-Bashir has staunchly opposed such a force in Darfur, a massive desert area on Sudan’s border with Chad.

(AP/ST)