Darfur minister explains delay of Doha security arrangement execution

A Darfur minister said the security arrangement of the Doha peace treaty has not yet been implemented because signatories are not able to discern the troops who joined it before and after the signing in 2011. Speaking to reporters during the Nyala conference this week, Minister of Health Osman Bushra of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) disclosed that many soldiers joined the signatory Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) only after it signed the peace deal. Dr. Tijani Sese, chairman of the DRA, is also head of the LJM.In line with the security arrangement of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), only rebels who were affiliated to the LJM before it endorsed the deal are entitled to be absorbed into the Sudanese armed forces or to receive vocational trainings.Bushra, who is also a scholar and a former officer himself, added the government of Sudan is missing financial means to support the soldiers with food, medicines and salaries while they wait to be sorted out and relocated.5,000 troops At the time when the Doha Document was signed, LJM claimed its faction counted 5,000 troops. However, following joint investigations in 2012 by the Sudanese government, UNAMID and the rebel movement itself, it became evident the original faction was much smaller.It also became evident that most of the troops joined the LJM after it endorsed the DDPD, although nobody is able to discern with certainty one group from the other.The Sudanese government thus refuses to begin with procedures of the DDPD security arrangement and to support the soldiers until this impasse is solved, according to the minister’s justification.File photo: Singing ceremony for the agreement between the Government of Sudan and LJM in Doha, Qatar (Olivier Chassot/ UNAMID)