From Darfur, al-Mahdi reiterates support for ICC
February 1, 2020 (NYALA) – In a troubling public meeting held in the capital of South Darfur on Saturday Sadiq al-Mahdi, head of the National Umma Party (NUP) Saturday repeated his call to hand over the ousted President Omer al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.
Al-Mahdi is touring the country to rebuild his party 30 after à military coup by the Sudanese Islamists who waged war and dismantled the social fabric of his main electoral bastion of Darfur.
However, on Saturday he had to confront a group of youth who chanted slogans against him and termed him as a “liar” and “sectarian” before asking him “where is the peace?”
In return, the NUP leader devoted most of his speech to respond to the criticism of the youth. He pointed to his alliance with the Sudanese Revolutionary Front and the Paris Declaration of 2014.
“The chants of our sons do not bring peace, but rather lead to chaos,” he further stressed as he was keen to stop his supporters from quarrelling with them.
This is not the first time that supporters of some armed groups seek to foil the meetings of political leaders in Darfur.
In September 2019, an FFC delegation had to cancel a meeting in El Fasher the capital of North Darfur after hostile chants against them by supporters of some armed groups.
Nonetheless, the veteran political leader recalled his position on the war crimes in Darfur and repeated his call to hand al-Bashir over to the Hague based court.
Al-Mahdi stressed the need to hold accountable “whoever violated the people’s honour, stole their money and killed them”.
In his first press conference after al-Bashir’s ouster on 27 April 2019, al-Mahdi called to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC.
“This is what the families of the victims demand, and requires the normalization with the international community,” he said.
The armed groups in Darfur region also call for al-Bashir trial at the ICC.
In what seemed as an electoral platform, al Mahdi also vowed to work to restitute the rights of the war-affected displaced and refugees, to address the economic crisis, achieve disarmament and tribal reconciliation.
The NUP Secretary-General al-Wathiq al-Birair, for his part stressing that his party made major concessions for the sake of the nation, and called on the FFC groups to work to make the goals of the revolution a reality.
“But we reject any nominations for governor that do not represent the ambition of the concerned state,” he said.
The NUP leader recently called to give his party the majority of state governors recalling that his party won the parliamentary majority in the last free elections of 1986.
(ST)