Former rebels’ integration into Sudan army enters ‘second phase’

Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Koreina, Acting Commissioner for Security Arrangements at the Darfur Regional Authority, announced that the ex-rebel fighters of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) began implementing the second phase of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme in North Darfur on Sunday. The integration of a group of LJM forces into the 15th Infantry Division began in West Darfur on Friday. 

He called on the ex-combatants to report at their designated posts immediately to participate in training and join the regular forces.

In August last year, the first batches of the LJM, that signed the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) with the Sudanese government in the Qatari capital in 2011, and those of the Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan, that joined the DDPD in 2013, began with the DDR programme in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. Thousands of other LJM ex-rebels commenced their integration training in West Darfur in December.  

At the opening ceremony of the integration of a group of LJM forces into the 15th Infantry Division in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, on Friday, Bahar Idris Abu Garda, Federal Minister of Health and LJM Secretary-General, congratulated the ex-fighters. He said that the implementation of the security arrangements does not only constitute the ex-rebel forces’ transition from carrying arms against the state to protecting the country, but also enabled the LJM to actually register as a political party.

THE DDPD stipulates that the LJM can only establish a political party if the security arrangements are implemented.