UNAMID chief to meet rebel groups over peace in Darfur
January 26, 2012 (KHARTOUM) — The head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) Ibrahim Gambari said he would seek soon to convince rebel groups to join the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), six months after its signing.
Gambari who is also the joint peace mediator ad Interim said he will tour a number of African countries, after the end of the AU summit, to meet Darfur rebel groups in a bid to persuade them to join the Doha document.
Sudan and Liberation and Equality Movement (LJM) signed the DDPD on 14 July after nearly two years of talks but the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) refused and proposed to open talks on the basis of the text. Sudan rejected the request.
Speaking to the Agence France Presse on Wednesday, Gambari said JEM’s position towards peace depends on the outcome of the rebel group’s leadership meeting.
“We’ll have to wait and see what leadership emerges, how much support such a leadership has, and then we’ll take it from there,” said the Nigerian diplomat.
JEM today confirmed that Gibril Ibrahim has been elected to succeed his brother who was killed by the Sudanese army last December.
The new rebel leader is expected to maintain the current political line as the rebel group put out last year a text of a peace document they drafted saying it determines their positions on the seven chapters of the DDPD.
Gambari is expected also to meet the other rebel groups particularly the two factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahdi Al-Nur and Minni Minnawi. Who both were not part of the Doha peace process.
According to the Sudanese foreign ministry, Rahama-Tallah welcomed the move and reiterated Sudan’s commitment to enforce the DDPD and to end the suffering of Darfur civilians.
(ST)