‘Greatest challenge for Darfur tribal unrest, not rebels’: Sese

The head of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), Dr Tijani Sese, has warned of continuing ethnic polarisation during the three-day Conference on Social Peace that started on Saturday in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. Sese compared the ongoing ethnic polarisation as “weevils, eating away the body of the people of Darfur”. He criticised the “absence of fair competition between the Darfur leaders. Many rely most and for all on their tribe”, he said. “When they assume a political or executive position, the tribe is left and lives of innocent people are lost.” According to Sese, the greatest challenges facing the enforcement of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur are not the armed rebel movements but the tribal conflicts. He revealed that there are plans to hold a conference on the development of a roadmap for disarmament in Darfur. During the conference on Saturday, representatives of the South Darfur native administration sharply criticised the Sudanese government and the South Darfur authorities of not respecting tribal leadership. The head of the native administration’s Executive Office, the Nazir of the Beni Halba tribe, El Tom El Hadi Dabka, stated that the native administration is not valued at all by the state, stressing that “from today onwards, the native administration will not be used anymore as tools in elections, to be put aside after the polls are finished”.   File photo: Dr Tijani Sese Related:Social Peace Conference begins in South Darfur (3 January 2014)Darfur Regional Authority passes social peace conference (22 November 2013)