‘Darfur Authority chairman did not resign’

The National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP) has denied rumours that Dr El Tijani Sese, chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), has submitted his resignation.

On Sunday, Ahmed Fadul, Minister of the DRA Cabinet and NLJP spokesman told Radio Dabanga that the rumours circulating on social media about a possible replacement of Sese by Lt. Col. Ibrahim Suleiman are false.

“Dr El Tijani Sese is exercising his normal duties as president of the DRA,” he stressed.

The NLJM is the result of a split of the Liberation and Justice Party (NJM) that was formed in 2010 by 19 breakaway factions of the main Darfur rebel movements under the leadership of El Tijani Sese. It signed the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) in July 2011 with the Sudanese government. Sese was appointed head of the DRA upon its establishment in 2012.

Split

At the end of last year, members of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), then headed by Sese, began to publicly criticise the “fraudulent practices” of the DRA presidency. In January Sese was ousted as head of the LJM.

In February, LJM Secretary-General and federal Minister of Health Bahar Idris Abu Garda was elected as the new chairman. Sese formed the NJLM. Since then the DRA, with functionaries of both the NJLM and the JLM, has been divided too.

The LJM continued to criticise Sese’s functioning as head of the DRA. Abu Garda told reporters in Khartoum on 10 August that his party has come to the conclusion that the DRA cannot be reformed as long as Sese is in power and monopolising all decisions.

“Sese is in control of the Authority’s supervisory board and has stripped the DRA Ministers of all powers. The Council of Ministers has held only four meetings throughout its four-year term. The last one took place eight months ago,” he said.

Abu Garda also holds the DRA president responsible for the failure to implement early recovery projects and the rampant corruption in the Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) programme.

Fight

Last Wednesday, the conflict between the LJM and the NLJM led to a fight in the El Salam Rotana Hotel in Khartoum.

During the DRA’s inauguration ceremony of Phase Two of the Darfur development projects, former members of the National Liberation and Justice Movement (NLJM) headed by DRA chairman Dr El Tijani Sese, stormed the podium.

They demanded to read a statement in protest against the NLJM’s way of working concerning the Darfur development projects. When this was refused, they began to riot and attacked a DRA Minister. The police intervened and contained the situation.

Boycott

On Sunday, the DRA Ministers of the LJM and JEM-Sudan boycotted the emergency meeting of the DRA Executive Body called for by Sese after Wednesday’s incident.

Both the LJM and the Justice and Equality Movement faction (JEM-Sudan) that signed the DDPD in April 2013, said in brief statements that they “will not give Sese the legitimacy he is looking for” and that they will continue their boycott of the meetings of the DRA Executive Body “until its rearrangement as stipulated in this year’s Presidential Decree 31”.