Southern rebel groups in reported merger

After three months of talks, two rebel movements, hitherto rivals in southern Sudan, on Monday announced a merger to help them better pursue their war for the region’s right to self-determination, news organisations reported. Under the agreement, the Sudan People’s Democratic Front (SPDF), led by Riek Machar, would dissolve itself and join the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), headed by John Garang, AFP reported, citing officials of the two groups. The merger declaration stated that the movement would battle against genocide, ethnic cleansing, slavery, “wanton looting” of oil and natural resources, and displacement of southern people by “non-indigenous settlers from the north”, the report said.

The agreement provided for the immediate cessation of hostilities, facilitation of humanitarian aid and the establishment of a military commission to reorganise the unified movement’s military structures, AFP reported. The strengthened SPLM/A reiterated its commitment to the peace process spearheaded by the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the resolutions of the National Democratic Alliance (an umbrella organisation of the SPLM/A and several northern-based opposition groups), it said. The merger declaration deplored the “meaningless and regrettable loss of lives caused by internecine and inter-factional fighting as a result of the our political differences, which only benefit the enemy”, the report added.

Machar defected from the SPLM/A to the government in 1997, becoming assistant president. He resigned this post in February last year, accusing the government of having sent troops to fight his soldiers in the southern Wahdah (Unity) State. Machar comes from the Nuer ethnic group, while Garang is a member of the Dinka community. Ethnic rivalry was one of the reasons for the original split of the SPLM/A in 1991, after which Machar created his own rebel movement. Dinka and Nuer militias are pitted against each other in several areas of southern Sudan.