France and Sudan discuss Mali rebels in Darfur

Sudan and France have discussed the presence of Mali fighters in Darfur, the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. Al-Obeid Marwih, spokesperson of the ministry, said the Sudan minister of Foreign affairs Ali Karti went yesterday to Paris to meet his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.After the meeting, Ali Karti told TV journalists that his government has not received information about the Mali fighters as reported by Radio Dabanga and other media, but he promised the French government concerning the flight of jihadist groups from Mali to Darfur, Karti said: “But we are ready to cooperate in the fight against these individuals if we have received information about these groups.” Chadian president Idriss Deby informed Paris that rebels fleeing large-scale attacks on their positions in Mali by French and Malian forces had entered Sudan’s western Darfur region, a well-placed diplomatic source told Sudan Tribune. Until recently Sudan fiercely denied the presence of Mali fighters, although pictures have documented the infiltration of Islamist rebels from Mali.An independent human rights commissioner, Masood Badri al-Deen, claimed in a press conference in Khartoum that the joint African Union-United Nation Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) had also confirmed a Malian rebel presence in Darfur, Sudan Tribune reports. The Sudanese army (SAF) continues to deny the presence of Malian jihadist groups in Darfur. (Picture File Sudan Tribune)