Rebel leader contradicts government accusations

Speaking on social media, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) leader mocked the government’s accusations of subversive schemes and opposition forces denounced racism against Darfur students.

The head of the mainstream SLM-AW, Abdelwahid El Nur, ridiculed the government's accusations of his movement by trying to manage subversive schemes by recruiting cells in Khartoum targeting the demonstrators who came out demanding the overthrow of the regime. 

On Friday evening the Sudanese government said that its security forces had clashed with the armed forces of the SLM-AW in El Durushab area in Khartoum North before capturing them. A video was then broadcast in which detainees confessed that they were preparing an attack on public institutions, which involved burning vehicles and killing protesters.

Furthermore, the State Minister for Information, Mamoun Ibrahim, accused the rebel group of planning to kill protesters and blame security forces for these crimes. He also said that the security services captured 47 Molotov cocktails, four Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition.

Statement of rebel leader

In an interview on social media, El Nur said that “the Sudanese people went out in order to overthrow the regime,” and stressing that his movement has not targeted any city, despite the government's attempts to target civilians. According to him, “the Sudanese people have become aware of the lies of the regime and [Omar Al Bashir], and therefore demonstrated to topple the regime and overturn the conflict.”

The exiled rebel leader said that "the SLM/A stands ready to defend the people of the nation from mercenary killers and torturers of the regime if it becomes our moral duty to intervene to save innocent lives in the major population centres," in a four-page statement to explain the SLM-AW position from the ongoing unrest in Sudan. He stressed that the SLM-AW “is now loyal to the people, who will determine their fate, after the revolution.”

He said, "We challenge anyone who says we attacked him or her for ethnic reasons.”

To this day, the SLM-AW rejects to engage in peace talks with the government and refuses to declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities. However, last September it declared a three-month unilateral cessation of hostilities to allow humanitarian access to civilians in landslide-affected areas in Jebel Marra.

Detained students mislabelled as rebel partisans

The Sudanese opposition forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Malik Agar and Sudanese Congress Party (SCP), in separate statements stepped up their campaign by denouncing what they called racist targeting adopted by the authorities of students in the Darfur region. 

This came after the announcement that security and government forces had arrested students for use of weapons and tactics to target demonstrators, and large-scale vandalism. The Independent Student Conference said in a statement that many houses were raided. According to the organisation, “many detainees are student leaders active in the field of peaceful student work, and have nothing to do with armed or violent action.”

Until December 29, 41 students, mainly from the University of Sennar in eastern Sudan and El Azhari University in Khartoum, have been detained.