‘Deliberate assassination’: Surviving Bashar brother visits burial site in North Darfur
Abdul Al Rahman Bashar, brother of JEM-Bashar faction leader Mohamed Bashar, who was killed along with six others including a third brother Noureen Bashar near to the Chad-Sudan border, has visited the site near where the bodies were found in North Darfur and Chad. He has concluded that his brothers were victims of “a targeted and deliberate assassination”.As reported earlier this week, Mohamed Bashar, leader of a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and his deputy, Suleiman Arko, were killed on Sunday during an attack near the Chad-Sudanese border that claimed at least 10 lives. It has since emerged that Mohamed’s brother Noureen was also among the dead.Mohamed Bashar and his entourage clashed with mainstream JEM elements as their convoy travelled from the Chadian capital to Khartoum. They were en route to the capital in order to implement the peace treaty his faction had agreed with the Sudanese government in Doha on 6 April, sources said.Thus far, however, reports have been conflicting as to whether the actual killing took place in Chad, or across the Sudanese border in Darfur.Speaking to Radio Dabanga on Wednesday, Abdul Al Rahman Bashar says that his brothers were “killed intentionally”.“My brothers were travelling with a total of 65 people, including drivers, in a convoy of unarmed commercial vehicles,” he says. “Mohamed and Noureen were together in a rental car. There were only three weapons in the entire convoy for security purposes, and no military vehicles were present.”Abdul Al Rahman says that the convoy stopped for a rest at 12.30pm near to Pamina in Chad, just four kilometres from the Sudanese border. The convoy was then approached and surrounded by 30 vehicles carrying armed JEM fighters.“The attackers isolated my brothers and some others from the group before killing them. They then buried some of the bodies near Bahay (Chad), before moving the other bodies across the border, five kilometres into Sudanese territory. These were given a makeshift burial in Tina (North Darfur).”Abdul Al-Rahman travelled to the two areas when he heard of the incident, and locals guided him to where to where the bodies were hidden. “The burial was so inadequate that their legs could be seen protruding from the sand,” he says.In September last year a splinter faction of the JEM announced its separation from Darfur’s largest rebel group, accusing the movement of becoming a biased organisation, expressing favouritism to some particular ideas and accused the group of being no longer transparent. Shortly afterwards, Mohamed Bashar, leader of what became known as the JEM-Bashar, signed the internationally brokered DDPD with the Sudanese government in Qatar.File photo: 6 April 2013. Doha, Qatar: Left to right, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Sudan’s State Minister at the Presidency, Amin Hassan Omer, Head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), General Mohamed Bashar Ahmed, the UNAMID Deputy Joint Special Representative, Aichatou Mindaoudou Souleymane, and the UNAMID JSR, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, sign the peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and JEM on the basis of the DDPD (Albert González Farran/UNAMID)Related: International condemnation of Sudan DDPD signatory leader’s slaying (15 May 2013)
Abdul Al Rahman Bashar, brother of JEM-Bashar faction leader Mohamed Bashar, who was killed along with six others including a third brother Noureen Bashar near to the Chad-Sudan border, has visited the site near where the bodies were found in North Darfur and Chad. He has concluded that his brothers were victims of “a targeted and deliberate assassination”.
As reported earlier this week, Mohamed Bashar, leader of a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and his deputy, Suleiman Arko, were killed on Sunday during an attack near the Chad-Sudanese border that claimed at least 10 lives. It has since emerged that Mohamed’s brother Noureen was also among the dead.
Mohamed Bashar and his entourage clashed with mainstream JEM elements as their convoy travelled from the Chadian capital to Khartoum. They were en route to the capital in order to implement the peace treaty his faction had agreed with the Sudanese government in Doha on 6 April, sources said.
Thus far, however, reports have been conflicting as to whether the actual killing took place in Chad, or across the Sudanese border in Darfur.
Speaking to Radio Dabanga on Wednesday, Abdul Al Rahman Bashar says that his brothers were “killed intentionally”.
“My brothers were travelling with a total of 65 people, including drivers, in a convoy of unarmed commercial vehicles,” he says. “Mohamed and Noureen were together in a rental car. There were only three weapons in the entire convoy for security purposes, and no military vehicles were present.”
Abdul Al Rahman says that the convoy stopped for a rest at 12.30pm near to Pamina in Chad, just four kilometres from the Sudanese border. The convoy was then approached and surrounded by 30 vehicles carrying armed JEM fighters.
“The attackers isolated my brothers and some others from the group before killing them. They then buried some of the bodies near Bahay (Chad), before moving the other bodies across the border, five kilometres into Sudanese territory. These were given a makeshift burial in Tina (North Darfur).”
Abdul Al-Rahman travelled to the two areas when he heard of the incident, and locals guided him to where to where the bodies were hidden. “The burial was so inadequate that their legs could be seen protruding from the sand,” he says.
In September last year a splinter faction of the JEM announced its separation from Darfur’s largest rebel group, accusing the movement of becoming a biased organisation, expressing favouritism to some particular ideas and accused the group of being no longer transparent. Shortly afterwards, Mohamed Bashar, leader of what became known as the JEM-Bashar, signed the internationally brokered DDPD with the Sudanese government in Qatar.
File photo: 6 April 2013. Doha, Qatar: Left to right, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Sudan’s State Minister at the Presidency, Amin Hassan Omer, Head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), General Mohamed Bashar Ahmed, the UNAMID Deputy Joint Special Representative, Aichatou Mindaoudou Souleymane, and the UNAMID JSR, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, sign the peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and JEM on the basis of the DDPD (Albert González Farran/UNAMID)
Related: International condemnation of Sudan DDPD signatory leader’s slaying (15 May 2013)
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