Nafie says SPLM-N’s rebels defecting to Sudan’s army ArticleComments (1). Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 12, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – An official in Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has claimed that a large number of fighters from the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) are defecting to the army. Nafie Ali Nafie (Getty)That official is the NCP’s vice-chairman and presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie who made the claim during a meeting of the party’s leadership in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by President Al-Bashir and devoted to discussing the situation in the war-hit state of South Kordofan. According to Nafie, who spoke to reporters afterward, the meeting received a report on the efforts of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to “assimilate a large number of fighters who renounced rebellion.” “We have learned that some groups of fighters have returned and there are great and organized efforts by the armed forces to take them in and integrate them,” the NCP’s figure said. He further pointed out that the report detailed efforts of mobilization and contact in the rebels-controlled area in order to persuade SPLM-N members to return to the fold and “dispel the falsehoods” the rebels use to gain followers. Nafie said that the SPLM-N rebellion led by Abdul Aziz al-Hilu has nothing to do with Sudan or South Sudan but was rather a vehicle of foreign interference from the ruling party of the same name in the Republic of South Sudan. Khartoum accuses its southern neighbors in Juba of supporting SPLM-N rebels who say they are no longer affiliated to the South Sudan’s ruling SPLM since the south seceded from Sudan in July last year. Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the SPLM-N, Yasir Arman, has accused the government of targeting civilians in their controlled areas by preventing humanitarian aid. Arman said in a press release issued on Thursday that a new survey conducted by the SPLM-N revealed that 300,000 more people fled their homes in South Kordofan and more than 400,000 people in Blue Nile. The rebel official noted that Khartoum continues to defy the international community by refusing to open humanitarian corridors to deliver food and aid to the displaced population in the two states, considering this as “a war crime.” Arman stressed that the international community has an obligation to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian assistance. He added that it’s time to break the silence over Khartoum’s use of food as a weapon. Khartoum has refused to allow aid agencies into rebels-controlled areas since its army started fighting SPLM-N rebels in South Kordofan in June 2011 and in Blue Nile in September 2011. The conflict in the two states has displaced approximately 417,000 people, more than 80,000 of them to neighbouring South Sudan, according to UN figures. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
