Darfur rebel group fragmented over commander death
December 9, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A Darfur rebel group witnessed a new defection after one of its commanders announced he is establishing a new movement.
The move comes in wake of the mysterious death of Sideeg Abdel-Karim, chief commander of in a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) near the city of Wau, capital of West Bahr Al-Ghazal State.
Yusuf Abu-Namosha, one of Abdel-Karim’s advisers told the daily Al-Sudani that a new body has been created under the name of ‘Popular Front for Democracy and Development’ (PFDD).
He said that Hamoda Ahmed Badawi has been appointed as PFDD’s secretary general, Commander Isaac Jacob as head of army, Commander Mubarak Ahmed as spokesperson.
The rebel figure alleged that the late rebel commander has been assassinated by the SLM’s faction chief Ahmed Abdel-Shafi.
Abu-Namosha said that Abdel-Karim’s was taken into custody on orders from Abdel-Shafi at 3 am, then was eventually killed along with 16 others, including 5 from the Masalit tribe.
However he said that they are awaiting results of investigation committee formed by South Sudan president Salva Kiir into the killings.
On Monday Abdel-Shafi speaking to Sudan Tribune by phone from Darfur dismissed these accusations saying that he had returned to Darfur from southern Sudan since January.
But Abdel-Shafi’s former spokesperson said in a statement last week that-Abdel Karim, had been arrested and killed near Wau, capital of West Bahr Al-Ghazal State. He also said that Abdel-Karim had clashed with the SPLA soldiers in the area.
The killed chief commander had been on a mission to persuade commanders who were in Wau with Abdel Shafi to leave for Darfur, Al-Haj said.
Following that the SLM faction adopted a resolution suspending Abdel-Shafi from the leadership.
However Abdel-Shafi said that his suspension by the group is “nonsense”.
Abdel-Shafi said that the four people who decided his suspension where not qualified to take such a decision and he claimed that he has the support of many members of the leadership council of the faction.
He added that the move was motivated by his rejection of the Qatari initiative, while they were willing to take part in the talks.
In November 2007, nine Darfur rebel factions decided to reunite their political organizations and military structures under the name of SLM-today-in-Juba. The reunification was sponsored by the southern Sudan government and African Union (AU) and UN envoys for Darfur.
The concerned factions were from SLM/A (6 factions and military sections), the Justice and Equality Movement-Field Revolutionary Command, the Democratic Popular Front (DPF), and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF).
Last July two rebel factions walked out of a coalition shaped under the sponsorship of the Juba government three months later. Adam Ali Shoggar, Khamis Abdalla Abakr (SLM/A) and Ibrahim Al-Zubaidi, (United Revolutionary Front) announced in a joint press statement their withdrawal from the United Resistance Front (URF). They further accused their former partners of working to sabotage their leadership within their own organizations.
The move is considered by observers as a setback of the efforts undertaken by the SPLM to help resolve the Darfur crisis.
The former rebel SPLM had been criticized by its peace partners the National Congress Party who saw the move as an attempt to put pressure on them. In addition, some of the Darfur rebels also considered the reunification efforts as meddling in their affairs.
(ST)