‘Ex-rebels excluded from UN Darfur programmes’: General
The Sudanese Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration Secretariat have denounced the refusal of Unamid and the UN Development Programme to include ex-rebels in their integration programmes.“The organisations refused to include the Darfuri rebel veterans for undisclosed political reasons,” Gen. Salah El Tayeb, Secretary-General of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) Secretariat, claimed at a press conference in Khartoum on Tuesday. Most of the ex-rebel combatants have been integrated into Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Popular Defence Forces. The general said that “in particular after peace agreements have been signed with a number of armed movements, the number of ex-combatants is expected to rise to 100,000”. He noted that an additional amount of $175 million is needed to support the integration of some 84,000 Darfuri rebel veterans. He furthermore mentioned that the Secretariat has re-integrated more than 176 child soldiers in South Darfur, with financial assistance from Unicef. “About 12,000 weapons in South Darfur have been registered, and the Secretariat is currently supporting the registration of arms in West Darfur.” The DDR programme is part of the security arrangements stipulated in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), signed by the Liberation and Justice Movement, led by El Tihani Sese, and the Sudanese government in 2011. In April 2013, a breakaway-faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) joined the peace agreement. It was not until August this year that the integration of about 1,350 former JEM-Sudan combatants into the Sudanese army was launched in North Darfur. Some splinter groups of Darfuri rebel movements have signed the DDPD too. File photo: Representatives of the Sudanese government at the inauguration of a visitors’ room in El Shalla Federal Prison in El Fasher, North Darfur. Inmates constructed the room during a vocational training course, organised by Unamid and UNDP, December 2013 (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: Sudan launches demobilisation for ex-rebels in Darfur (14 November 2014)
The Sudanese Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration Secretariat have denounced the refusal of Unamid and the UN Development Programme to include ex-rebels in their integration programmes.
“The organisations refused to include the Darfuri rebel veterans for undisclosed political reasons,” Gen. Salah El Tayeb, Secretary-General of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) Secretariat, claimed at a press conference in Khartoum on Tuesday. Most of the ex-rebel combatants have been integrated into Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Popular Defence Forces.
The general said that “in particular after peace agreements have been signed with a number of armed movements, the number of ex-combatants is expected to rise to 100,000”. He noted that an additional amount of $175 million is needed to support the integration of some 84,000 Darfuri rebel veterans.
He furthermore mentioned that the Secretariat has re-integrated more than 176 child soldiers in South Darfur, with financial assistance from Unicef. “About 12,000 weapons in South Darfur have been registered, and the Secretariat is currently supporting the registration of arms in West Darfur.”
The DDR programme is part of the security arrangements stipulated in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), signed by the Liberation and Justice Movement, led by El Tihani Sese, and the Sudanese government in 2011.
In April 2013, a breakaway-faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) joined the peace agreement. It was not until August this year that the integration of about 1,350 former JEM-Sudan combatants into the Sudanese army was launched in North Darfur. Some splinter groups of Darfuri rebel movements have signed the DDPD too.
File photo: Representatives of the Sudanese government at the inauguration of a visitors’ room in
El Shalla Federal Prison in El Fasher, North Darfur. Inmates constructed the room during a vocational training course, organised by Unamid and UNDP, December 2013 (Albert González Farran/Unamid)
Related: Sudan launches demobilisation for ex-rebels in Darfur (14 November 2014)
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