Former Darfur rebel leader killed in Chad

Fatal incident. Mohamed Bashar and deputy who signed peace deal with Sudan last month, killed by Justice and Equality Movement fighters.

NAIROBI

The leader of a breakaway faction of Darfur’s main rebel group and his deputy have been killed following an attack inside Chad near the border with Sudan.

Mohamed Bashar and Suleiman Arko were killed during fighting with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Sudan’s intelligence agency announced on Sunday. JEM fighters aboard a 30-vehicle convoy reportedly attacked Bashar’s group while they were having lunch, just a few kilometres from the Sudanese territory.

Martin said there have been conflicting reports about which side started the fight. Nahar Osman, an adviser of Bashar, said his group was attacked. In an interview with the Sudan Tribune, Nahar said five other members of Bashar’s group were killed, along with a Chadian security officer and two cattle keepers working nearby.

Blow to peace process
JEM said Bashar’s forces attacked its base forcing them to fight back. Bashar’s rebel faction had signed a peace deal in Doha on April 6 with the Sudanese government to halt 10 years of fighting in Darfur.

His top aide Arko led the negotiating team. It was founded by Darfuris, loyal to a prominent religious and political leader Hassan al Turabi. Martin said: “His [Bashar’s] death and the death of his deputy is very significant,” Martin said, adding that is a serious blow to the peace process. She said that the main JEM group may not have “forgiven” Bashar for signing-up to the Darfur peace deal.

Last April, JEM fighters killed a deputy commander of the breakaway faction allied with Bashar. Mr Salah Eddin Elzein, director of Al Jazeera’s Centre for Studies, said Bashar’s death could also raise questions about the security arrangement between Sudan and Chad. “If this happened within Chad, it is a serious development,” Elzein said, adding that both countries have troops patrolling the border.

Elzein also said the killing of Bashar deals a blow to the “piecemeal” approach of the African Union in Darfur. The death of the two top rebel leaders will also put on hold the peace agreement already signed in Doha by the rebels and the government of Sudan, he said.