Efforts to reunite the two main Southern factions - John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army and Riek Machar's Sudan People's Democratic Front - have suffered a setback...
Southern leaders at daggers drawn since 1991 have reached agreement in principle that Riek Machar's forces be reintegrated into the Sudan People's Liberation Army of Colonel John Garang...
The chiefs said the attacks began at night and that government forces some on camels avoided the barracks of Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon's Sudan Popular Defence Forces (SPDF) now again at odds with the NIF government in order to target civilians...
The feud between them dates back to 1999 when Gadet was blamed by the SPDF for devastating Leer Riek Machar's home-town...
The EU's bland resolution reminiscent of last year's and which Ottawa co-sponsored included a call to the Sudan government to 'continue its efforts to ensure the rule of law' and welcomed the 1997 'Peace Agreement' which had already been rejected by its main southern signatory Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon; this produced bitter mirth among Sudanese observers...
The visible face of the NIF's 'Peace from Within' policy Riek Machar resigned (while in the opposition-held south) on 31 January...
Joseph Malwal one-time official of Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon's Southern Sudan Independence Movement and previously Minister of Animal Resources got the new post of Survey and Urban Development Minister: 'The United Democratic Salvation Front is not happy with the formation of the government because we were not consulted we were totally ignored' he complained...
Early last month southern leaders in the north including former Vice-President Abel Alier demanded a vote; a British-based southern group has been doing likewise; and Riek Machar left Khartoum for Europe two months ago and is now believed to be in Nairobi talking to Garang's SPLA...
Lam Akol Ajawin Transport (nc): Shilluk; chemical engineer; once friend of northern secularists; with Riek Machar broke from John Garang in 1991; both later joined NIF regime...
Vol 41 No 1 |
- NORTH AFRICA
The flirtation with the NIF of the Umma and DUP fuels domestic discontent and southern demands for self-determination pushing southern groups coopted by the NIF such as that of Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon back towards the SPLA...
Thus the NIF was excluding not only its Southern opponents but also its allies including Southern Coordination Council head Riek Machar and Transport Minister Lam Akol Secretary of its latest peace committee...
'Homeland'has two main aims for the NIF: to coopt and therefore neutralise El Sadig and his Umma further dividing the NDA on the model used for Riek Machar and Lam Akol; secondly to wrongfoot the United States while convincing outsiders especially European governments and businesses that it really wants peace (AC Vol 40 No 23)...