Sudan asks Juba to extradite SPLM-N leaders

January 3, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese police has submitted a formal request to its counterpart in South Sudan asking it to handover leaders of the armed rebel group, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N).

The request stated that a number of individual SPLM-N’s members, including its chairman Malik Aggar and secretary-general Yasir Arman, are wanted by the Sudanese authorities for their role in ‘sparking the war’ in Blue Nile state.

Blue Nile became the scene of an armed conflict between the Sudanese government and the SPLM-N in September 2011, three months after a similar conflict erupted in South Kordofan state.

The conflict is rooted in the refusal of the SPLM-N fighters in the two states to surrender their arms following the secession of South Sudan, with whom they shared a long history of armed struggle against Khartoum.

According to a police source cited by the government-sponsored Sudanese Media Center (SMC), the Sudanese Interpol addressed its counterpart in South Sudan and the regional office in Nairobi asking for the extradition of Arman and Aggar along with others.

Sudan’s request to South Sudan follows an earlier request from Khartoum to the Interpol for the issuance of a Red Notice for the arrest of Arman, Aggar along with 16 other individuals who are charged by the Sudanese Justice Ministry in relation to the outbreak of the conflict in Blue Nile.

The SPLM-N individuals are charged with ‘conspiracy to wage war against the state’ in Blue Nile.

Reacting to the news, Yasir Arman poured scorn on Khartoum’s move, saying that the arrest warrant against him is issued by people who are themselves wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The SPLM-N secretary-general was referring to the ICC’s arrest warrant for Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir in relation to the conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

(ST)