Darfur rebel figure to leave for Kenya within 48 hours
September 12, 2007 (KADOGULI, southern Kordofan) — Darfur longtime confined figure Suleiman Jamous will leave the UN hospital in southern Kordofan within 48 hours heading to Kenya for medical treatment.
Jamous said the Sudanese government has renewed his passport and gave him exit visa. Also, the Kenyan authorities delivered him the necessary visa to enter in Nairobi.
The rebel figure said the UN needs just for 48 hours to arrange medical plane to transport him to Kenya and to obtain the necessary authorization for the private flight.
Jamous said the Sudanese president after his meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has directed to deliver the necessary authorization and to facilitate his departure to Kenya.
The senior rebel figure said that a great task is waiting him and expressed wishes to not disappoint the huge expectations that he feels on his shoulders.
Jamous needs a stomach biopsy which cannot be performed in the U.N. hospital. On Monday he left the hospital for the first time in more than 13 months to walk to the nearby U.N. headquarters and ask to leave Sudan for medical treatment.
Jamous, who mobilized a huge international support for his case, is considered consensus builder who could help peace efforts and unify fractured rebels.
The United Nations had moved him to a U.N. hospital near Darfur more than a year ago without informing Khartoum in order to protect him from Minni Minawi who had arrested him after the signing of Abuja accords. Sudan called him a criminal and said it would arrest him if he left U.N. care.
(ST)