Khartoum conference outlines plans for post-DRA Darfur

Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar says that Sudan's government will create a body belonging to the Presidency, headed by a Minister as an alternative for the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), whose mandate will expire in June.

Al Mahmoud was speaking as chairman of the 11th meeting of the Implementation Follow-Up Commission (IFC) of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), currently being held in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

At a press conference held at the Sudanese Centre for Press Services of the security apparatus yesterday, the head of the DRA, Dr Tijani Sese, said that “55 of the total 94 articles of the DDPD have been implemented in a good way, which represents 59% of the total included in the Document”.

Sese said that “the security situation has been stabilised and recovered in Darfur compared to previous years”.

He called on the national government “to extend the prestige of the state and disarmament citizens to maintain the sustainability of peace”.

Sese revealed a roadmap for the collection of arms in Darfur, to be presented by the DRA to the Presidency in an official letter to appoint the DRA’s employees to the civil service.

Referendum

The DRA was established in line with the DDPD, which was signed in July 2011, by the Sudanese government and the former rebel LJM. The Authority was tasked with the implementation of the peace document and monitoring development projects was one of the main responsibilities. Its mandate was effectively ended by the results of a controversial referendum held in accordance with the DDPD last month, which showed an overwhelming preference for Darfur to continue as separate states, rather than a single region. Opposition parties widely criticised the result as ‘false’.