South Sudan: Grieving Sudanese confront Swedish oil giant Lundin for its "complicity in grave war crimes"

IN November 2021 the Swedish Prosecution Authority (SPA) charged two executives of Lundin Energy, a Swedish oil exploration and production company, for "complicity in grave war crimes" in Sudan from 1999 to 2003. 

Lundin Oil was a key player in war-torn Sudan between 1991 and 2003, when it exited Block 5A. It quit the country fully in 2009, two years before the country split into South Sudan — which holds most of the oil — and Sudan, through which the south's oil is exported. 

Military forces from the south were originally charged with providing security around Lundin Oil's assets when the company started operations in 1997, said the SPA, claiming that a militia group allied to the Khartoum government tried to take control of Block 5A, but failed, although its attacks led to "great suffering" among civilians. Read more in four reports below.

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From The Observer, Sweden
By MIRANDA BRYANT in Stockholm
Dated Sunday, 31 December 2023, 05.00 GMT - here is a copy in full:

They attacked us. They displaced us: grieving Sudanese confront Swedish oil giant over their days of slaughter

A historic trial, which will call on 61 witnesses worldwide, is expected to set a precedent for global corporations in foreign jurisdictions

George Tai Kuony George, centre, attends a meeting in Juba, Sudan, with victims of the Lundin Oil’s exploration. Photograph: Handout

Before the arrival of Lundin Oil in the town of Leer, now part of South Sudan, life there was peaceful, says George Tai Kuony. His childhood was that of a “typical village boy”, driving cattle, helping his family and going to school. But in June 1998, when he was 15, armed forces entered the town and changed his life for ever.

He fled, became separated from his family and hid for seven days before he was able to return. “When we got there, Leer wasn’t the town I had left seven days ago,” says the 40-year-old lawyer and human rights defender. “Everything was burned down, everything was destroyed. I could see the bodies of dead people lying in the street.” As a result of the conflict, he lost his father, and later his mother and one sibling.

At the time, he says, the community had no idea why people were fighting. They had never heard of the Swedish oil company. Now, a quarter of a century later, Kuony hopes that he and the other victims will get justice as two former executives of the company go on trial in Stockholm accused of aiding and abetting war crimes in Sudan between 1999 and 2003.

In Sweden’s largest-ever trial, Ian Lundin, a Swede, and Alex Schneiter, who is Swiss, stand accused of asking Sudan’s government to make its army and allied militia responsible for security at one of Lundin Oil’s exploration fields. This led to aerial bombings, civilian killings and the burning of entire villages, according to the prosecution. Both men deny the charges.

The trial, which follows a decade-long investigation, hundreds of interviews and an 80,000-page report by the prosecution, started in September. But its most significant moments are expected in 2024, when 61 witnesses – including victims, Lundin employees, former UN staff and high-profile politicians – are due to appear. They include Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, who sat on the company’s board for five years until becoming the country’s foreign minister.

Sudanese rebel soldiers march to the front close to newly-developed oil fields in the south of Sudan. Photograph: Reuters

“My life has never been the same,” says Kuony, speaking to the Observer from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, where he now lives. “Oil came to our area: it should have been a blessing. It should have been for the benefit of the community.” Instead, there was “a massacre. They wanted us dead. They wanted us to go away.”

Kuony has been trying to get justice since 2006, when the group unsuccessfully sought redress at a court in Sudan. He hopes the trial, whatever its outcome, will set a new legal precedent for global corporations working in foreign jurisdictions, sending a “very strong message” that they cannot act with impunity. “That one day they will be prosecuted in the same way.”

But the victims have already been dealt a significant blow. Ebony Wade, a legal adviser at Stockholm-based human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, said Stockholm district court’s decision in November to separate the plaintiffs’ damage claims from the criminal trial would make it “significantly harder” – if not impossible – to have their cases heard, and would considerably delay the justice process.

While the plaintiffs’ testimonies were still expected to be included in the criminal trial, she said, this could push the civil claims back until the criminal trial was over, which would not be until February 2026. However, May 2024 will be a historic moment: for the first time the court will hear the experiences of plaintiffs and victims from South Sudan.

“It’s incredibly rare for corporate executives to be held accountable for grave human rights violation,” says Wade. “For the first time, the leadership of a multinational company is being put on trial in a European country on allegations that they were complicit in war crimes in the conduct of their business activities.”

She adds: “There are very few opportunities for victims of grave international crimes to seek redress, so in that sense this is an incredibly important trial.”

‘What made me sorry is that people came to the church seeking safety and were not able to get it’: Reverend James Ninrew Dong outside the district court building in Stockholm.

Rev James Ninrew Dong, of the Presbyterian Church in South Sudan, fled Leer after religious buildings were targeted. The priest, who is a witness and a plaintiff in the case, said he felt compelled to testify: “They attacked us. They displaced us. What made me sorry is that people came to the church seeking safety and were not able to get it. They were also displaced.”

For him, the case demonstrates the different standards applied by European companies operating in Africa. “Sweden is the champion of peace in the whole of Europe and this is where the Nobel prize is always done,” he says. “We were surprised to see that some citizens of the same country do not even care and do not even listen to what the history is.”

For the case to finally be in court is a relief, he adds. “Can they do that in Norway? Can they do that in Sweden? Can they do that in any of the European countries? Of course no – the answer is no.”

View original: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/31/sudanese-confront-swedish-oil-giant-over-their-days-of-slaughter 

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Related Reports

Sudan Watch - November 20, 2021

'Complicity' in war crimes alleged: Top Lundin Energy executives charged over Sudan legacy

The Swedish Prosecution Authority (SPA) has laid criminal charges, including "complicity in grave war crimes", against Lundin Energy chairman Ian Lundin and director Alex Schneiter, related to the company's legacy operations in Sudan. 

Pictured in 2009: The Thar Jath oilfield lies in Block 5A in South Sudan. It was discovered in 2001 before South Sudan's independence and before Lundin Energy sold its stake in the block Photo: AFP/SCANPIX

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2021/11/complicity-in-war-crimes-alleged-top.html

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Sudan Watch - November 19, 2021

Swedish oil executives charged with complicity in Sudan war crimes

SWEDEN has charged two executives (pictured below) of a Swedish oil exploration and production company for complicity in the military's war crimes in Sudan from 1999 to 2003. Full story here below. 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2021/11/swedish-oil-executives-charged-with.html

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Sudan Watch - June 04, 2019

Military takeover in Sudan: 

A timeline of key events in Sudan’s unfinished revolution

Click on this USAID 2001 Sudan Oil and Gas Concessions Map to see Block 5A in Unity State, South Sudan.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/military-takeover-in-sudan-timeline-of.html

ENDS

Darfur war leader Abdul Wahid Nur is in South Sudan

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: A day after I mentioned Abdul Wahid Nur's name here, I go to sleep and wake up to find him in this news report by AFP.

He’s 55. 20 years ago he and his gormless gang along with a more intelligent and ruthless JEM gang started the Darfur war. Tintin springs to mind here. 

AFP's report says he is now based in Juba, South Sudan but doesn't say how he funds his work-free life, travel, hotel rooms, fancy clothes, family if any.

France & Germany host Darfur rebels. Maybe supporters pay for him to laze around Paris, save his skin, drink beer, visit Israel. He makes my foot itch. 

The report is copied here in full to show the standard of his chat. Note that he states the obvious saying Sudanese people want a civilian government. 

He rarely visits Darfur as support for him has dwindled. He has delusions of becoming president of Sudan or Darfur or anywhere that'll have him. 

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Report from Yahoo News

By Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Dated Thursday 4 May 2023, 11:24 am BST - full copy:

'No winner' in Sudan war: exiled Darfur rebel leader

Sudanese exiled rebel leader Abdel Wahid Nur -- a veteran of decades of fighting in the troubled Darfur region -- says there can be "no winner" in the war now raging between two rival generals.

"The Sudanese people want neither of them," Nur, now based in neighbouring South Sudan, told AFP. "They want a civilian government."

Battles have flared for weeks between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

"What's happening in Sudan is a disaster," Nur, 55, said in an interview in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where he lives after spending years in Paris.

"There is no winner in this war," said the leader of a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) whose members, he said, have not joined the fighting.

The battles have turned Khartoum into a war zone and also killed scores in Darfur, which Nur said once more suffers "war crimes and crimes against humanity".

Nur was a leader of the Darfur rebellion from 2003 when African minority groups rose up against Arab elites they accused of monopolising Sudan's political power and wealth.

The Islamist-backed strongman then in power, Omar al-Bashir, unleashed the notorious Janjaweed militias, the forerunners of the RSF, whose atrocities shocked the world.

The unrest killed at least 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, according to the UN. The bloodshed led to international charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Bashir and others.

Although Darfur's conflict subsided over the years, the region remains awash with weapons and sporadic violence erupts, often over access to water, land and resources.

- 'Hands of oppression' -

Sudan's military ousted Bashir in April 2019 following mass pro-democracy protests, and Burhan has been the de facto leader since then.

Daglo, from Darfur's pastoralist camel-herding Arab Rizeigat people, rose to prominence with the Janjaweed, which made up the bulk of the RSF formed in 2013.

In October 2021, Burhan and his then number-two Daglo jointly staged another coup that upended the country's fragile transition to civilian rule.

The two generals then engaged in a power struggle, most recently over the RSF's integration into the regular army, which has now flared into bloody violence.

"The two bodies fighting now once acted as Bashir's hands of oppression," said Nur.

"The army and Burhan personally supervised the making of the Janjaweed," he said, adding that his own movement opposes both and only fights "oppression".

Nur described the conflict as the expected outcome of a "political struggle that became militarised".

The current fighting has killed more than 550 people, wounded thousands and sent more than 100,000 fleeing abroad.

In West Darfur state, the UN says, the hostilities "have triggered intercommunal violence", which have seen many deaths and accounts of rampant looting and burning of property.

- Ambition to rule -

Nur's SLM faction refused to sign a 2020 peace deal with Sudan's short-lived transitional government installed following Bashir's ouster.

It charged that the accord, signed by other rebel groups, failed to address the root causes of Sudan's conflicts.

Nur said his movement had however observed "a unilateral ceasefire since Bashir's ouster and have since committed to it" to give a chance to the planned transition to civilian rule.

Nur belongs to the ethnic Fur tribe in Darfur, and analysts believe his faction still maintains considerable support.

A report last year by UN experts said Nur's faction was among Darfuri armed groups "receiving payments and logistical support" in exchange for sending mercenaries to strife-torn Libya.

The UN experts, in 2020, also said Nur's group had strengthened its miliary capability following the discovery of gold in its area.

Nur rejects the allegations and says he does not support either side in the current war, stressing that his fighters play no role in it.

Nur said the conflict reflects the two generals' ambitions to rule Sudan but is only "increasing the suffering" of the people, especially in Darfur.

In a country with a history of military coups, Burhan and Daglo have each touted themselves as champions of democracy seeking to restore the transition to civilian rule.

Nur, recalling the mass youth-led protests that led to Bashir's overthrow, said the Sudanese people reject both of them.

"I don't think they will ever accept military rule," he said.

bur/it/fz

View original: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/no-winner-sudan-war-exiled-102413405.html?guccounter=1

[Ends]

URGENT: South Sudan army says it and UN unable to protect civilians in Jonglei State. Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war. (UPDATE 1: Added YouTube video link)

• Fighting in South Sudan cuts off 100,000 people from aid

• South Sudan army says it and UN unable to protect civilians in Jonglei

• Fighting in South Sudan forces thousands into bush

• South Sudan fails to protect civilians in east, US say

• Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war   

Note by the Editor of Sudan Watch:
HERE below is an alarming news report by Agence France Presse (AFP), published online yesterday (Wednesday 17 July 2013).  If the report is true and accurate, and considering what happened between the Lou Nuer and Murle people in December 2011 (reportedly, thousands were massacred), it could be a dreadful warning that many people in South Sudan are about to lose their lives. 

The AFP report copied below is followed by a few news reports.  I selected the reports for this blog post.  Note that one of the reports by Reuters ends by saying:  "A cycle of tribal violence has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since South Sudan's secession, hampering plans to explore for oil with the help of France's Total and U.S. firm Exxon".

Finally, here are a few points taken from some of the other news reports, particularly regarding tribal clashes in Jonglei State, South Sudan:

• Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war   

• UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said the new fighting made it impossible to supply some 100,000 people in Pibor county in Jonglei State with "life-saving assistance.  The fighting is threatening the lives of ordinary people," Amos said in a statement.   The United Nations did not have enough helicopters to deliver aid to Jonglei where overland travel is impossible in the rainy reason, she said.  

• Medicins sans Frontiers (MSF), one of the few aid groups operating in Jonglei, said more than 120,000 people had been forced to flee clashes between the army and Yau Yau rebels.

• Last week, the United States, South Sudan's biggest ally, said Juba was not doing enough to protect civilians and urged the army to stop attacking U.N. staff and looting aid agencies.

• Separate tribal clashes were also reported in Unity state, site of several oilfields

South Sudan army says it and UN unable to protect civilians:  Minister
Wednesday 17 July 2013 - JUBA, South Sudan (Agence France Presse (AFP)) - South Sudan's deputy defence chief has said neither his troops nor United Nations peacekeepers are able to protect civilians in conflict-wracked Jonglei, where thousands of rival ethnic militiamen are fighting.

Video footage from eastern South Sudan's Jonglei shot by UN officials and seen by AFP show columns of heavily armed fighters from the Lou Nuer people marching past, watched on by a small force of government troops and UN peacekeepers.

"Much as we believe in the ideals of the responsibility to protect, our mandate as the government and the mandate of the UN cannot match with resources that are there," South Sudan's deputy minister of defence Majak D'Agoot told AFP late Tuesday.

The video was shot Sunday in the village of Manyabol in Pibor County, when the UN went to support the pickup of some 200 wounded fighters -- casualties from almost two weeks of fighting in the latest round of reprisal attacks sparked by age-old ethnic rivalry and cattle raiding.

The video shows fighters apparently returning towards their homelands, some leading stolen cattle.

The numbers of fighters suggest attacks on a scale comparable to those of December 2011, when some 8,000 Lou Nuer marched on Pibor, home town of their long-term rivals, the Murle people.

The UN later estimated more than 600 people were massacred in those attacks, although local officials reported the figure to have been far higher, while killings continued in a series of reprisal attacks.

D'Agoot said that in Manyabol the army had only one company, alongside a handful of UN peacekeepers, and that they were vastly outnumbered by as many as 7,000 militia gunmen.

Taking action in those circumstances would have been "suicidal", he said.

Hilde Johnson, head of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said she had not seen the video her force had shot, but said that peacekeepers had sighted Lou Nuer forces and were "verifying that they were moving north on their return home".

Tit-for-tat cattle raids and reprisal killings are common in this severely under-developed state, awash with guns left over from almost two decades of civil war.

But recent attacks are on larger scale, with organised and well armed forces fighting.

South Sudan's rebel-turned-official army has also been fighting in the region to crush a rebellion led by David Yau Yau, who comes from the Murle people, since 2010.

View original report reprinted at:
http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=148596
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RELATED NEWS REPORTS

Fighting in South Sudan cuts off 100,000 people from aid
Wednesday 17 July 2013 - JUBA, South Sudan (By Andrew Green, Reuters) - Fighting between government forces, rebels and rival tribes has cut off 100,000 people from urgently needed food and medical aid in South Sudan's east, U.N. and aid officials said on Wednesday.

South Sudan's army is facing a rebellion from local politician David Yau Yau in the vast Jonglei state, and new clashes have broken out between the rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes.

Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war, undermining stability in the young African country, where weapons are plentiful after decades of conflict with Khartoum that led to its secession from Sudan in 2011.

U.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said the new fighting made it impossible to supply some 100,000 people in Pibor county in Jonglei State with "life-saving assistance".

"The fighting is threatening the lives of ordinary people," Amos said in a statement. The United Nations did not have enough helicopters to deliver aid to Jonglei where overland travel is impossible in the rainy reason, she said.

Medicins sans Frontiers (MSF), one of the few aid groups operating in Jonglei, said more than 120,000 people had been forced to flee clashes between the army and Yau Yau rebels.

A United Nations source said armed Lou Nuer youth had attacked several Murle villages in the past two weeks. Fighters loyal to Yau Yau, who is popular with his Murle tribe, had come to help fight back.

Separate tribal clashes were also reported in Unity state, site of several oilfields. In one incident, attackers apparently burnt a hut in a village with a woman and three children inside, said a U.N. source, asking not to be named.

The United Nations has not published any casualty figures of the Jonglei fighting despite a large presence of peacekeepers. Critics say the world body does not want to embarrass the government.

South Sudan accuses Khartoum of supplying Yau Yau with weapons. Diplomats say the claims are credible but South Sudan's army is also fuelling dissent with abuses such as rape, killings and torture committed during a state disarmament campaign.

Last week, the United States, South Sudan's biggest ally, said Juba was not doing enough to protect civilians and urged the army to stop attacking U.N. staff and looting aid agencies.

South Sudan has struggled to turn its army, a loose group of former guerrillas formed during the civil war, into a professional force.

Tribal violence has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since South Sudan's secession, hampering plans to explore for oil with the help of France's Total and U.S. firm Exxon.
(Reporting by Andrew Green in Juba and Ulf Laessing in Cairo; Editing by Michael Roddy)

View original report at:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/17/uk-southsudan-fighting-idUKBRE96G11N20130717
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Fighting in South Sudan forces thousands into bush
Sunday 14 July 2013;  12:17pm EDT - JUBA, South Sudan (By Andrew Green, Reuters) - Fighting between South Sudan's army, rebels and rival tribes has sent thousands of people fleeing into the bush in the east of the country, U.N. and aid officials said on Sunday.

South Sudan's army is facing a rebellion from local politician David Yau Yau in the vast Jonglei state, and new clashes have broken out between rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes.

Western powers are worried the violence will escalate into full civil war, undermining stability in the young African country, which is awash with arms after decades of conflict with Khartoum that led to its secession from Sudan in 2011.

The United Nations said thousands of people were hiding in the bush outside Pibor town in Jonglei to escape from conflict between the army and Yau Yau, who says he is fighting corruption, army abuses and one-party rule in South Sudan.

"The communities are in urgent need of medical attention," Toby Lanzer, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, said in a statement.

At least 200 wounded people had arrived in the Jonglei town of Manyabol after fleeing clashes between the Lou Murle and Murle, the U.N. said. Bringing in aid was difficult as the rainy season had made overland travel impossible.

A United Nations source said armed Lou Nuer youth had attacked at least three Murle villages in the past two weeks. Fighters loyal to Yau Yau, who is popular with his Murle tribe, had come to help fight back.

South Sudan's army spokesman Philip Aguer confirmed there had been new fighting in Jonglei but gave no details.

South Sudan accuses Khartoum of supplying Yau Yau with weapons. Diplomats say the claims are credible but South Sudan's army is also fuelling dissent with abuses such as rape, killings and torture committed during a state disarmament campaign.

Last week, the United States, South Sudan's biggest ally, said Juba was not doing enough to protect civilians and urged the army to stop attacking U.N. staff and looting aid agencies.

South Sudan has struggled to turn its army, a loose group of former guerrillas formed during the civil war, into a professional force.

A cycle of tribal violence has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since South Sudan's secession, hampering plans to explore for oil with the help of France's Total and U.S. firm Exxon.

(Writing by Ulf Laessing in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Roche)

View original report at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/14/us-southsudan-fighting-idUSBRE96D08120130714
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South Sudan fails to protect civilians in east, U.S. says
Wednesday 10 July 2013 - JUBA, South Sudan/KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - The United States issued a rare criticism of South Sudan on Wednesday, saying the African state was failing to protect civilians in the east where the army is fighting an insurgency.

Western powers have long urged Juba to find a peaceful solution to fighting involving the army, a rebel group and rival tribes in the vast Jonglei state but have so far mostly refrained from criticizing the government.

A United Nations source said new fighting erupted a week ago between the rival Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in the Pibor area in Jonglei, killing an unknown number of people.

More violence was expected as armed youths from both sides were amassing forces in the area, the source said. A U.N. team visiting the town said that most civilians had left Pibor, contrary to government figures, the United Nations said in a report.

The United States, South Sudan's biggest ally, said it was "deeply disappointed" that the army, or SPLA, had failed to protect civilians in vulnerable areas in Jonglei.

"The lack of action to protect civilians constitutes an egregious abdication of responsibility by the SPLA and the civilian government," the U.S. embassy in Juba said in a statement.

Washington urged the government to prevent "SPLA attacks on U.N. staff and humanitarian assets". It gave no details but soldiers had looted compounds of U.N. agencies and aid agencies in Pibor in May, according to aid sources.

South Sudan has struggled to turn its army, a loose group of former guerrillas formed the civil war with Khartoum, into a professional force since seceding from Sudan in 2011 under a 2005 peace deal. The U.S. was a driving force in pressuring Khartoum into allowing an independence vote.

The army has faced a rebellion by militia leader David Yau Yau but diplomats say the SPLA is fuelling dissent with abuses such as rape and torture committed during a state disarmament campaign.

A cycle of tribal violence has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since South Sudan's secession, uprooting tens of thousands of civilians and hampering plans to explore for oil with the help of France's Total and U.S. firm Exxon.

Analysts say the roots of the tribal violence and cattle raids go back to South Sudan's failure to start development in Jonglei and elsewhere in the vast country due to corruption.

(Reporting by Andrew Green and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Michael Roddy)

View original report at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/10/us-southsudan-fighting-idUSBRE96910E20130710
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Click on labels at the end of this post to see previous reports in the archives of Sudan Watch re:  Jonglei, Pibor, Lou Nuer, Murle, Yau Yau, Unity State - at the end of each page click on the hyperlink entitled "Click HERE to scroll down" and keep on scrolling down, page by page.

This blog post was published on Thursday 18 July 2013 at 6:03pm GMT, England, United Kingdom.

UPDATE ON FRIDAY 19 JULY 2013: 
Here is a link to the above mentioned video.  The video was published (source unknown) at YouTube on Thursday 18 July 2013 together with the following title and text:

"UN and SPLA do nothing as thousands of government supported militia go by
Shocked UN peacekeeper in South Sudan village of Manyabol, Jonglei on July 14 2013 narrates video of "thousands and thousands" of member of a government supported militia thought to be returning home from ethnic violence in Jonglei state marching past them and government troops with stolen cattle after violent clashes which have already led to hundreds of wounded. No action was taken to stop them or even to make this sighting public."



Here is a link to the above video, title and text:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_fFxBIJWzw

Doha: Sudan's government and a collection of Darfur rebel groups have signed a three-month cease-fire deal

Sudanese vice-president Ali Osman Taha (L), Qatar's crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Khalifa Al Thani (C) and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al-Thani attend a truce ceremony in Doha Thursday, March 18, 2010.

Sudan signed a three-month ceasefire deal with a second Darfur rebel group on Thursday, a diplomatic source close to the negotiations said, part of a government push to end the conflict in the western Sudanese region before elections. (Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous)



Ghazi Salah Eddin (L), adviser to Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, shakes hands with Al-Tijani Al-Sissi of the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) after signing a truce in Doha March 18, 2010. (Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous)



Sudan's government representative Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, left, and rebel leader Al-Tijani Al-Sissi hold the documents after signing a truce in Doha Thursday March 18, 2010. Sudan's government and a collection of Darfur rebel groups have signed a cease-fire, opening the way for political negotiations ahead of a full peace agreement. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)



Al-Tijani Al-Sissi of the Liberation and Justice Movement (L), Youssef Ezzat, secretary of the Movement of the United Revolutionary Force (C), and Mahjoub Hussein, secretary-general of the Sudan Liberation Movement Revolutionary Forces, talk at the truce ceremony in Doha. March 18, 2010. (Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous)



Mahjoub Hussein, secretary-general of the Sudan Liberation Movement Revolutionary Forces, attends a truce ceremony in Doha March 18, 2010. (Reuters/Mohammed Dabbous)
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JEM, five rebel factions agree to coordinate toward unity

From Sudan Tribune, Thursday 18 March 2010 - extract:
JEM, five rebel factions agree to coordinate toward unity

March 17, 2010 (KHARTOUM) - Twenty four hour before the signing of a second framework agreement between the government and another rebel group in Doha, the Justice and Equality Movement with other five groups agreed to coordinate their positions and work for unity.

Besides JEM, the unity agreement is signed by the Sudan Liberation Movement Unity Command (SLM-Unity), SLM Juba-Unity, the United Revolutionary Forces Front, the Democratic Justice and Equality Movement and breakaway commanders from SLM- Abdel Wahid Al-Nur. These groups were part of Addis Ababa Roadmap group sponsored by the US envoy Gration.

The signatories reiterated the need to reunite the resistance in order to get the rights of Darfur people and extended the invitation to all the forces keen to reach that goal, stressing no just peace deal can be reached without unity.

Related report
UN News Centre, Thursday, 18 March 2010:
As another Darfur ceasefire deal is signed, UN envoy voices hope