September 3, 2008

Former soldiers finally being assisted

Beja militants of the Beja Congress joined with militants from the Rashaida tribe back in early 2005, and acted as the Eastern Front. They put small scale armed pressure against federal forces. Political members negotiated with the federal government to try to get assistance to the poorly serviced parts of Eastern Sudan. Eventually a peace agreement was signed in November 2006, and the militants were to be assimilated into either the police force or the national army.
That integration was to begin in June or July of 2007. Today's article - reprinted below - states that the demobilization of 2900 soldiers in Eastern Sudan has begun, 14 months late.

Al-Ahdath stated that the Northern Sudan DDR Commission began integrating 2900 of demobilized soldiers of the Eastern Front, SAF and PDF in eastern Sudan. The chairman of the Commission Sulaf Al-Din Saleh has apologized for the delay of integration in Eastern Sudan adding that the process was enjoying the support of the state’s highest political levels. He also pointed out the contribution of UNDP towards the process.

Representative of the Defence Minister Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Abdul Faraj said 76 projects have been provided for reintegration purposes and 500 additional projects would be provided to the demobilized soldiers during this month as well as 750 jobs.

source
http://www.unmis.org/english/2008Docs/mmr-sept03.pdf

Additional information is found in a Sudan Vision article
http://tinyurl.com/5v3dxa