Sudan’s main rebel group, currently involved in peace talks with the government, has denied aiding a new insurgency in the western region of Darfur, saying it was being used as a “scapegoat.” Fighting in Darfur, a new cauldron of conflict in Africa’s largest country, erupted in February as the government and the country’s main rebel movement in the south try to hammer out a peace deal after 20 years of civil war. Regional governor Ibrahim Suleiman has accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south, of supporting and arming the nascent Sudan Liberation Movement/Army in Darfur after a Sudan army general was kidnapped. Suleiman, himself an retired general and former defence minister, said army reinforcements were on their way to help quash the insurgency. “That’s not true. The SPLA is not fighting in Darfur. This is an internal problem in Darfur, which is one of the marginalised areas in Sudan,” Samson Kwaje, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman told Reuters late on Tuesday. “When something like that happens, they choose us as a scapegoat. We have no forces there, it is far from the south.” The SPLA’s conflict with Khartoum has killed around two million people. The war broke out 1983 pitting the Islamic government in the Arab-speaking north against rebels seeking more autonomy for the largely animist or Christian south. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.