Eastern Sudan rebels to demobilise

Former rebels operating in eastern Sudan are to demobilise “within days” following the group’s official registration as a political party, officials said on Wednesday.

Rejecting reports that the movement has split along ethnic lines, Eastern Front deputy chairperson Amna Dirar said a peace deal signed last October is on track and that ex-fighters have gathered at two camps, one inside Sudan and another west of Eritrea.

“The Eastern Front has now registered as a political party with the administration in Khartoum,” Dirar told Agence France-Presse in Asmara.

“The soldiers will start to move within days.”

Five camps are being prepared for an estimated 1 800 ex-fighters in the Kassala and Red Sea states in Eritrea.

“Once in the camps, then they will choose what to do,” she said.

“It is important because it is part of being included in the Sudanese state, rather than just being farmers or nomads.”

The Eastern Front was created in 2005 by the Rashidiya Arabs and the region’s largest ethnic group, the Beja, after 11 years of low-level insurgency against the Khartoum government.

Under the deal, movement leaders are to name an aide to Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and will get a junior minister’s post as well as eight seats in Parliament. Khartoum is to allocate it a total of $600-million over five years for development.

“We are not yet very well organised as a political party, but we are still the Eastern Front, whatever some people inside Sudan might say,” Dirar said.

“We have been holding many meetings to narrow the gap and be more united to be more specific in our opinions and decisions.”

The rebels have similar aims to their better-known counterparts in Darfur fighting for greater autonomy and control of natural resources.

The accord with the eastern rebels is part of efforts to pacify the whole of Sudan, African’s largest country, by building on peace pacts that the Arab regime in Khartoum have already reached with other rebel groups.—Sapa