Sudan’s Eastern Front ex-combatants repeat unmet demands

The Beja Congress committee for the demobilised in Sudan’s Red Sea state yesterday raised a memorandum to the state governor renewing their demand that all demobilised combatants are included under the umbrella of microfinance projects, housing plan and health insurance.

The committee also demand that he address the names that have ‘disappeared’ from the lists of demobilised combatants who are entitled to benefit.

Osman Hashim El Khalifa, journalist and chairman of the committee, told Radio Dabanga that these demands have been locked in the state government drawers for a year and a half.

He accused the government of seeking to dissolve the demobilised committee and force them to deal through the popular committees.

He said that the demobilised have been unable to establish productive projects for the small amounts provided by the government a year and a half ago, which amounted to SDG 12,000 ($1,800) per person.

He explained that 24 out of the 600 people who were absorbed into the civil service or given productive projects have disappeared from the demobilised lists.

He considered the failure to completely resolve the demobilised issues as a clear violation of the terms of Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement (ESPA) signed by the Government with the Eastern Front in 2006.

ESPA

The ESPA was signed by the Sudanese government and the Eastern Front rebel alliance, consisting of the Beja, the Rashaida Free Lions, and the Democratic Party of Eastern Sudan, in the Eritrean capital of Asmara on 14 October 2006.

In the agreement, the social, political, and economic marginalisation of the people of eastern Sudan was given as the core reason for the conflict in the region. Apart from political, economic, social, and cultural issues, it covered the security arrangements for Eastern Front ex-combatants.

The peace accord also provided for a national conference to address the administrative structure in Sudan, with the aim of identifying the inequalities in the employment of the eastern Sudanese in civil service and other structures.

The ESPA further required resources to be allocated to development through the Eastern Sudan Reconstruction and Development Fund (ESRDF).

However, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey (SAS) stated in its report Development Deferred: Eastern Sudan after the ESPA in May 2015 that the ESRDF faces charges of corruption and the mismanagement of resources. The Fund seems to have been systematically under-financed, while much of the funding has reportedly been allocated to national dam-building projects.