Sudan’s president says no ceasefire with new Darfur rebel group

Oct 3, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s president has denied that Darfur ceasefire accord reached two years ago is applicable to the National Redemption Front (NRF), a rebel group established recently in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, local press reported on Tuesday.

The Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups signed the ceasefire accord in the Chadian capital N’Djamena on April 8, 2004, paving the way for a peace deal.

“We do not have a ceasefire with the NRF, which was formed after the signing of Darfur Peace Agreement,” Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told a Ramadan breakfast party organized by Sudanese Copt Church Monday evening, according to the report.

He said that the rebel group was set up in order to disrupt the peace agreement by attacking the forces of Minni Menawi, the leader of a former rebel faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement who signed the peace agreement with the government on May 5.

This statement is considered as an official recognition of the last month government attacks on Darfur rebel positions.

Al-Bashir reiterated his government’s refusal of the UN Security Council resolution 1706, which calls for the deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

“If the international society insists on the UN peacekeepers deployment in Darfur, then the country has to choose confrontation,” the Sudanese president said.

The NRF was founded on 30 June by several rebel movements that had refused to sign the African Union-brokered Darfur Peace Agreement. The Justice and Equality Movement and SLM factions which are member in the NRF are signatories of the ceasefire. Only the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance of Ahmed Ibrahim Diraig did not sign the agreement.

Clashes have reportedly erupted between the NRF and the SLA led by Menawi in Darfur in the recent period, causing casualties on both sides.

(ST/Xinhua)