‘Military operations will be in Khartoum’

Darfuri resistance groups say they won’t fire a single shot in Darfur anymore

Darfuri resistance forces declared on Thursday that they would carry out all their military operations from Khartoum, instead of Darfur, now on.The Sudan Liberation Army’s Minni Minnawi (SLA-MM) faction as well as its Abdel Wahid faction (SLA-AW) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) all agreed on the decision.

The statement comes as a response to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) head General Mohammad Atta Al Mawla’s comments about the security situation in Darfur.

Mohammad Atta was quoted in a Khartoum newspaper on Wednesday as saying that the NISS was closely monitoring what was going on in Darfur. “We will not be deceived by the calm in the region. We are scaling up military operations in the region,” he said.

“We will not fire a single shot from Darfur unless it is in defense of civilians or our own defense,” Adam Saleh, spokesperson of the SLA-MM told Radio Dabanga. The movement declared that they were now working against the clock to bring down the regime in Khartoum.

Various opposition movements in Darfur formed an alliance, called the Kauda alliance, in September to unite in the cause of bringing the government down.

Nimr Abdel Rahman of the Sudan Liberation Army’s Abdel Wahid (SLA-AW) faction, echoed the SLA-MM’s statements. “We will now wage the war in Khartoum and not in Darfur, but the war in Darfur never stopped,” he said.

In the same context, Jibril Adam Bilal, spokesperson of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said that they were keeping a close eye on the movements of the government forces and its allied militias. “The government response is largely a drill meant to boost the moral of its troops after having faced multiple defeats and blockades at the hands of the marginalized people,” he said.