Large number of Darfur rebels surrendered: governor

KHARTOUM, Feb 22 (AFP) — A “large number” of rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region surrendered following President Omar al-Beshir’s amnesty, the governor of West Darfur state was quoted as saying Sunday.

“Large numbers of citizens who have previously broken the law and carried arms have surrendered to the state authorities in Geneina after the general amnesty,” Major General Suleiman Abdallah Adam told the official Al Anbaa daily.

He did not give a precise figure and his claim could not be independently verified. Geneina is the capital of West Darfur.

Beshir earlier this month called for a general amnesty throughout the region, provided that all rebels surrender their weapons to police within a month, while also claiming the army had crushed the rebellion.

Some 3,000 people have been killed and another 670,000 displaced within Sudan itself by the war in Darfur, pitting government troops and their Arab militia allies against rebels drawn mainly from the area’s non-Arab minorities.

Another 100,000 Sudanese are estimated to have fled to neighboring Chad because of the rebellion, which erupted a year ago over the government’s alleged economic neglect of the region.

Adam also expressed the gratitude of “all the Sudanese people” to official and non-governmental relief organizations for trying to help stem the refugee crisis, which he said was now “stable.”

He said authorities in Chad had been contacted to repatriate Sudanese refugees “soon and before the rainy season” which usually starts in July.

Darfur’s rebel groups – the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance – are seeking negotiations with Khartoum along the lines of those being held with the southern rebel movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, on sharing wealth and power.