Darfur: Minni Minnawi leader of Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said: ready to do battle
Minni Minnawi, the only Darfur faction leader to have signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with the Sudanese government, has declared the failure of the 2006 deal. The announcement deals another blow to Khartoum, which faces the possibility of the southern portion of the country seceding in an upcoming poll.
On Sunday, Minnawi accused the government of failing to implement the Darfur agreement, saying that he is ready to do battle.
Minnawi, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction leader, secured several official titles after he signed the peace accord with Khartoum.
But he has abandoned his government-allocated office in Khartoum where he had been serving as “senior assistant” to President Omar al-Bashir.
He has since moved to Juba, the capital of the South Sudan, the autonomous part that is hoping to become an independent country in the upcoming referendum on January 9.
The government declared last week that Minnawi, its one-time partner was now an “enemy,” and closed his Khartoum office.
Southerners “reject the policy of this [Khartoum] government” and will choose secession next month, Minnawi predicted, leaving behind northern Sudan as a “failed state.”
Clashes
Two people were killed in fighting between Minnawi’s forces and Sudanese troops in Khor Abeche, a southern Darfur village, on Friday and Saturday.
Kemal Saiki, the spokesman for a joint UN and African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, said one person was killed and four were wounded in Friday’s fighting.