Sudan president appoints ex-eastern rebels to government posts

May 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Three former rebel leaders from eastern Sudan were appointed on Wednesday to senior posts in the Khartoum government, as called for by a peace deal signed last year, a government official said.

The Eastern Front chief Musa Mohamed Ahmed was named assistant to President Omar al-Beshir.

Amna Dirar, the former rebel group’s vice president, has become a presidential adviser, while senior Eastern Front official Mabrouk Mubarak Salim has been designated secretary of state for transport, the official said.

Last week, rebels from the Eastern Front said in Asmara that they would demobilise on June 1, four months after they first announced such a move.

The Eastern Front was formed in 2005 by eastern Sudan’s largest ethnic group, the Beja, and the Rashidiya Arabs. The group has similar aims to its better-known counterparts in Darfur: greater autonomy and control of resources.

(AFP)