Sudan’s Umma leader warns of conflict in East Africa

Dec 31, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The leader of the opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has warned of a broad conflict in eastern Africa, if tensions in Sudan, Somalia and Uganda are not eased.

In a speech to thousands of his supporters in the city of Omdurman on the occasion of Eid-al-Adha, Al-Mahdi said: “If the conflict in Sudan is not solved, it will spread to the region from its crisis centre of Darfur; Arabic language al-Mashaheer website reported.

Al-Mahdi said the government of President Al-Bashir took a lot of time before accepting the deployment of few international troops to the war-torn western region of Darfur, which borders neighboring Chad and Central African Republic.

He further said Sudan’s [conflict] and the war waged by Ethiopia and Eritrea in Somalia threaten to plunge the region into a broader war.

(ST)