Six Darfur factions establish new rebel group

September 1, 2009 (PARIS) – In a move supported by the Libyan government, some six rebel factions formed on Monday one movement called Sudan’s Liberation Revolutionary Forces (SLRF).

The establishment of the new rebel group is seen as a significant development in the regional and international efforts to boost the Doha peace process sponsored by Qatar and supported by the African Union, Arab League and the United Nations.

Also it marks the increasing influence of the Libyan Muammar Gadhafi who chairs the African Union. It comes after Egyptian and American efforts to outdo previous Libyan attempts to reunite the rebels.

After persuading five groups to sign a common ground agreement and form one delegation last March, Egypt and the US Envoy to Sudan Mr. Scott Gration tried to “sabotage” Libyan efforts and held two meetings in Cairo in July and Addis Ababa in August to unify the rebels in one group.

In a ceremony on Monday attended by the UN-AU Joint Mediator Djibril Bassole, a Libyan minister, French envoy for Darfur Issa Maraut, a US diplomat based in Tripoli, the six factions signed the founding agreement.

The signatories said in the text they are the “forces of liberation movements that started from the Sudanese region of Darfur with its military, intellectual, social, political, historical and philosophical capacities to complete the project of the liberation of the homeland Sudan and to end all forms of discrimination and marginalization.”

The SLRF includes: Sudan Liberation Movement/Army SLM/A-Field Leadership, SLM/A-Unity Leadership, SLM/A-Juba of Mohamed Saleh Harba, SLM/A General Line, United Revolutionary Forces Front (URFF) and SLM/A Khamis Abakar.

However, the United Resistance Front (URF) of Idriss Abu Garda, the SLM/A-Juba of Ahmed Abdel Shafi, and a group of SLM/A Unity Leadership led by Abdalla Yahiya did not sign Tripoli agreement. They had all been part of another reunification process supported by the US Envoy Scott Gration in Addis Ababa.

Abdalla Yahiya told Sudan Tribune from Tripoli that the Addis Ababa group had agreed to hold a unity meeting inside the country among their supporters. He stressed that they explained their position to the Libyan authorities who understood their point of view.

However, Yahiya who is the leader of the SLM-Unity, issued today a decree removing the spokesperson of the group, Mahgoub Hussein, from his position and suspended his membership. But he refused to comment his decision.

On the other hand, Hussein, who has joined the SLRF, told Sudan Tribune that most of SLM-Unity members have now joined the new structure and stressed that Yahiya is very isolated with few troops. He also asserted that Ali Karbino, a breakaway commander from SLM-Unity who formed two weeks ago a group called Democratic Sudan Liberation Movement, would join their new movement.

Mahgoub also said they would announce the political and military SLRF leaderships within two days. He further disclosed that Darfur former governor, Mr. Al-Tijani Al-Sissi, from the Fur ethnic group, would be elected as leader of the movement.

According to this new development, there are now in Darfur four rebel blocks, Justice and Equality Movement, led by Khalil Ibrahim, SLM led by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, the SLRF and the Addis Ababa group which is supposed to be reunited in the near future.

During that last week, Libyan officials had succeeded in gathering JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim and the other rebel groups’ leaders, except for SLM-AW, in the presence of the joint mediator to discuss the unity issue. But the rebel factions rejected any reunification with JEM unless it makes a public apology for what they described as “negative discourse towards the movements in the last period.” Also they asked JEM to release their detained members.

The Libyan leadership sought this meeting to explore ways to unify all these factions and JEM. The latter powerful military group says it welcomes their merger but refuses to negotiate a unification deal with them.

(ST)