Saleh Mahmoud: Hemeti-brokered Darfur accords ‘superficial… do not represent interests of the people’

The reconciliation agreements brokered in Darfur by Deputy-Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the infamous Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, are “superficial, do not represent the interests of the people, and will not to real stability in Darfur,” asserts a leader of the Communist Party of Sudan, member of the Darfur Bar Association, and human rights lawyer Saleh Mahmoud.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga Mahmoud attributed the current exacerbation of violence and tribal conflicts to a history dating back to the third period of democracy and the government of the late El Sadig El Mahdi (overthrown in a military coup in 1989 which swept the Al Bashir dictatorship to power), which armed the Arab tribes to confront the rebellion in the south. The government also received one of the Chadian factions at the time, which had tribal extensions inside Sudan, which increased the spread of weapons and the phenomenon of armed robbery and tribal frictions, he says.

Mahmoud added that the rescue regime used the civil administrations to implement the agenda of the National Congress regime, which turned these administrations into employees of the Bashir regime.

He pointed out that Hemeti’s current movement among the civil administrations in the east and west, and the distribution of cars and gifts to them, leads to the link between these administrations with the current system rather than its connection with its rules, which makes the current peace conferences supra-conferences that represent the interests of the civil administrations and not the interests of the people who suffer from violence, looting and murder, he concludes.

Reconciliation agreement

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, on Wednesday last week, leaders of the Gimir tribe and a number of Arab tribes signed a final reconciliation agreement with the West Darfur government in El Geneina to end the conflicts witnessed in the area of Kulbus, which claimed the lives of more than 125 people and wounded dozens.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, Deputy-Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the infamous Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the governor of West Darfur, and military, security, and tribal leaders.

According to the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) Hemeti addressed the signing ceremony and said that this is the fifth peace agreement to be signed in West Darfur. He described it as the best document so far and said that this is the last real signing and reconciliation between the tribes. “With this, we have covered all the tribal problems in the state”, he said.