Sudanese rebel leader killed in Nyala

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North Democratic Revolutionary Movement (DRM) led by Yassir Arman says that one of its leaders was killed during shelling in Nyala, South Darfur, on Friday.

The DRM*, a breakaway faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction led by Malik agar (SPLM-N Agar), said in a statement that a shell fell on the house of Abdelazim Suleiman and killed him instantly.

Suleiman was the political secretary of the New Sudan’ Students Front at the Imam El Hadi University and the cultural secretary of the Khartoum state Central District. He is DRM’s third leader to be killed in Darfur during the recent war.

Fighting has escalated in Nyala in the past weeks and many remain trapped in the town.

Abubakr Yousef, the movement’s deputy chairman for West Darfur, and Mustafa Mohamed Ali, a member of the leadership office in West Darfur, were both killed in El Geneina.

Tribal leaders, activists, lawyers, and prominent civil society members or political leaders were deliberately targeted in the violence in West Darfur. In Nyala, this pattern seems to be repeating itself as lawyers and rebel leaders are targeted again.

The movement condemned the targeting of civilians by both sides of the war and called for the protection of people in all parts of Sudan, especially in Nyala.

Destroying a city the size of Nyala is a war crime, the DRM said.

* The SPLM-Democratic Revolutionary Movement (SPLM-N DRM or just DRM) was called into life in August 2022 by elements of the SPLM-N opposed to the October 2021 military coup and in support of the subsequent pro-democracy protests. Yassir Arman was elected chairman three days after him and Malik Agar, head of the SPLM-N Agar, agreed to “separate amicably”, citing different views on the coup. Arman had been the deputy head of Agar’s faction. The DRM said that it also does not want any conflict with the mainstream SPLM-N led by Abdelaziz El Hilu.