SAF: ‘Rebel movements raise SRF flag in El-Rigeibat’

Colonel Sawarmi Khaled Saad, spokesman of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) stated that elements of unidentified movements in Darfur have gathered in the El-Rigeibat area, at about ten kilometers north of Samaha, Bahr al-Arab in East Darfur, sources informed Radio Dabanga on Monday November 19. The army spokesman claims that the unidentified movements have established a camp in the area and reportedly raised the Sudan Revolutionary Front’s flag. In a press statement released to SUNA (Sudan News Agency), Sawarmi accuses the group of establishing a toll point on roads in the region, describing the act as an ‘explicit assault on citizens and an attempt to cover up robbing people’s money and blackmailing them’. Sawarmi emphasized that the SAF will not stand idly towards, what he called, ‘blatant aggression’ and that they would deal with such cases in a serious manner. However, the Sudan Revolutionary Front strongly denies the claims made by the SAF’s spokesman, describing his claims as ‘false’, stating that there are no SRF troops in that particular region. ‘SRF does not even have a flag’ Adam Saleh, spokesman of Sudan’s Liberation Movement – Minni Minawi (SLM), said that El-Rigeibat and Samaha are both ‘conflict areas’ in the borderlands with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army of South Sudan. Saleh stressed that the movement has no presence in South Sudan. He added that ‘if the National Congress Party wants to cancel the agreement signed with the SLM, it should not make the movement an umbrella for its intentions’.The spokesman emphasized that the SRF troops ‘do not even have a flag, but in case they would have one, they would focus on raising it in Khartoum, after the demise of the current regime’, the spokesman added to Radio Dabanga.