DARFUR
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), led by Jibril Ibrahim, and the Sudan Liberation Movement under the command of Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) issued a joint statement on Wednesday.
The two rebel movements that attended a conference organised by
Unamid in cooperation with IGAD for the non-signatories of the 2011 Doha Peace Agreement on 9-11 December 2013, said in the joint statement that a peaceful solution for Darfur can only be found at the negotiating table or by a popular uprising ousting the current regime.
The two movements are part of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and will not join the negotiation table separately. They will only do so within the framework of the Sudan Revolutionary Front and its allies of the National Consensus Forces (an alliance of opposition parties). On that basis the two rebel groups will participate in negotiations for a comprehensive solution for all conflicts in Sudan.
The movements state that they met with leaders of the native administration in Darfur, and recently, in Addis Ababa, with some of the participants of the Um Jaras Forum organised by President Idris Deby of Chad in October 2013. The goal was to clarify facts and confirm the positions already taken by the two groups about the output of the Um Jaras Forum. Both rebel movements refuse to reduce the Sudanese case to a tribal issue, and reject military intervention by the Chadian government in Sudanese internal affairs.
File photo: JEM leader Jibril Ibrahim at the Workshop on Peace and Security in Darfur for Armed Movements, held in Addis Ababa on 9 December 2013. (Albert González Farran / Unamid)