Eastern Sudan rebels to demobilise
Feb 7, 2007 (ASMARA) — Former rebels operating in eastern Sudan are to demobilise “within days” following the group’s official registration as a political party, officials said Wednesday.
Rejecting reports that the movement has split along ethnic lines, Eastern Front deputy chairwoman Amna Dirar said a peace deal signed last October was on track and that ex-fighters have gathered at two camps, one inside Sudan and another west of Eritrea.
“The Eastern Front has now registered as a political party with the administration in Khartoum,” Dirar told AFP in Asmara. “The soldiers will start to move within days.”
Five camps are being prepared for an estimated 1,800 ex-fighters in Kassala and Red Sea states in Eritrea.
“Once in the camps, then they will choose what to do,” she said. ”It is important because it is part of being included into the Sudanese state, rather than just being farmers or nomads.”
The Eastern Front was created in 2005 by the Rashidiya Arabs and the region’s largest ethnic group, the Beja, after 11 years of low-level insurgency against the Khartoum government.
Under the deal, movement leaders are to name an aide to Sudan’s President Omar el-Beshir and will get a junior minister’s post as well as eight seats in parliament and Khartoum is to allocate it a total of 600 million dollars (462 million euros) over five years for development.
“We are not yet very well organised as a political party, but we are still the Eastern Front, whatever some people inside Sudan might say,” Dirar said.
“We have been holding many meetings to narrow the gap and be more united to be more specific in our opinions and decisions.”
The rebels had similar aims to its better-known counterparts in Darfur fighting for greater autonomy and control of natural resources.
The accord with the eastern rebels is part of efforts to pacify the whole of Sudan, African’s largest country, by building on peace pacts which the Arab regime in Khartoum has already reached with other rebel groups.
(AFP)