SPLM-N condemns killing of rebel NCO in Sudan

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has strongly condemned the killing of one of their non-commissioned officers in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, by the Military Intelligence of Hajana on Thursday.

“The Military Intelligence refused even to hand over the body of Sergeant Adam Eisa Agoumi Koumi to his relatives,” Mubarak Ardol, the spokesman for the SPLM-N led by Malik Agar, said in a statement on Saturday. “His family only received his written will".

The SPLM-N considers the killing of Koumi a war crime and a violation of the Treatment of Prisoners of War as agreed in the Geneva Convention.

The rebel movement will officially request the International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights organisations “to independently investigate the crime, in order to punish the perpetrators, and protect the other Prisoners of War in accordance with international laws and treaties.

Sgt. Koumi was captured in Abu Karshola in South Kordofan on 9 December 2014.

Aid

On Saturday, the president of the National Umma Party, El Sadig El Mahdi, called on Abdelaziz El Hilu, who was elected temporary head of the SPLM-N in early June, to accept the US proposal for the delivery of aid to war-affected areas in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

He praised El Hilu’s declaration of a unilateral six-month ceasefire on 2 August.

In a public speech in River Nile state, El Mahdi warned the leaders of the SPLM-N that the current differences “are only in the interests of their opponents”.

The SPLM-N leadership rift began in late March after the then Deputy Chairman Abdelaziz El Hilu submitted his resignation. He accused Secretary-General Yasir Arman, the movement’s chief negotiator, of disregarding the issue of self-determination for the Nuba Mountains in the peace talks.

In early July, the Nuba Mountains Liberation Council temporarily tasked El Hilu with the leadership of the movement after relieving Chairman Malik Agar and Arman from their posts. The Blue Nile Liberation Council partially agreed to this decision.