Sudan Darfur rebel Khalil Ibrahim killed

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Source: BBC
25 December 11 17:25 ET


Darfur's main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, has confirmed that its leader has been killed, but said it happened in an air strike.

Spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal said in a statement that Khalil Ibrahim and a guard died when missiles struck their camp at 03:00 on Thursday (00:00 GMT).

Mr Bilal said the missiles had been fired by a plane directed by a "spy".

Earlier, Sudan's army said Mr Ibrahim had died during clashes in the Wad Banda area of North Kordofan on Sunday.

Spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Sad said he had been trying to cross into South Sudan, which gained independence from the north in July.

"He was trying to sneak via North Darfur state and South Darfur state into South Sudan, but the armed forces prevented him from doing so by blocking all possible routes," Mr Sad told BBC Arabic.

But the Jem statement said Mr Ibrahim had died when missiles from an unidentified aircraft, "which were aimed with unusual accuracy for a fighter jet from the regime's army", struck his camp. It alleged that regional and international parties had colluded with officials in Khartoum.

The movement also promised to remain true to Mr Ibrahim's programme "to change the regime by all means, including military".

High-profile attacks

Mr Ibrahim founded the Jem and made it the most powerful and most heavily armed rebel group in Darfur.

He returned to Darfur from Libya this year after the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi, who gave him sanctuary as well as military and financial aid.

The Sudanese government has accused Jem members of fighting alongside Gaddafi supporters during the uprising in Libya.

Attacks launched by the group include one on the capital, Khartoum, in 2008.

More than 220 people were killed when rebels drove across the desert to Omdurman, just across the River Nile from the presidential palace. Government troops eventually repulsed them after heavy fighting.

BBC
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Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Profile: Khalil Ibrahim

Leader of Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement is killed by sudanese army.

Khalil Ibrahim, who was the leader of the Darfurian rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Army's fiercest enemy, was killed on Sunday in a military offensive in North Kordofan region bordering the vast western region Darfur.

His movement's ideological roots lie with the National Islamic Front (NIF) which, under the leadership of Hassan Turabi, backed a bloodless coup that brought Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to power in Khartoum in 1989.

Ibrahim, a physician, initially supported the NIF but became disillusioned with what he saw as its economic neglect of Sudanese regions.

He set up a group of dissidents called "The Seekers of Truth and Justice" and published the "Black Book" in 2000 which detailed Arab domination of Sudanese political power and natural resources.

Exiled to the Netherlands, Ibrahim announced the formation of the JEM, whose core support was limited to his Kobe sub-branch of the non-Arab Zaghawa group, which straddles western Sudan and eastern Chad.

After years of conflict, Ibrahim's group emerged as the most formidable military challenge to Khartoum's government.

In its most stunning display of might, the rebels of JEM in 2008 blazed across the desert in trucks loaded with men and guns right up to the capital's outskirts and launched an attack that shook the government. At least 200 people, including rebels, civilians and security, died in that attack.

The short-lived assault was the first of its kind by the Darfur rebels.

JEM used neighbouring Chad as a rear base, but said they received no military support from Chad’s government.

In April 2009, Ibrahim told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview recorded at his rebel base camp on the Chad-Sudan border that JEM would seek the independence of Darfur if South Sudan became independent.

The government soon after the assult went into peace talks that produced deals with many rebel factions.

Ibrahim's group was among them at first, but it soon dropped out over disagreement on the release of prisoners and representation in a future government. He later extended his group's operation in provinces neighbouring Darfur and threatened to take the fight to Khartoum.

He tried to dominate other rebel groups in an attempt to form a unified position. But divisions along tribal lines and Ibrahim's own Islamist politics kept him from drawing a slew of rebel groups together under his leadership.

Ibrahim was, however, one of the most successful rebel leaders in securing support from Sudan's neighbours Libya and Chad in his fight against al-Bashir's regime - at least for a time.

Turn in fortune

His fortunes began to turn when the president of Chad reached a pact with al-Bashir to end his support for JEM and other rebel groups.

Ibrahim was expelled from Chad and sought refuge in Mouammar Gaddafi's Libya until Gadhafi's ouster and killing this year in that country's civil war.

Since then, Ibrahim's exact location had not been known.

Sudan's government said it attacked his convoy as he made his way to Sudan's newly born neighbour, South Sudan, which seceded from Khartoum in June as a result of a separate, decades-long war against the Arab-dominated government of Sudan.

JEM said its 54-year-old leader died in an air strike and not a "clash" with government forces. A rebel spokesman said Ibrahim was killed by a fighter plane directed by "a spy," and denied there was a battle between rebel forces and government troops. "When Khalil was attacked he was in his camp," the spokesman said.

The Darfur conflict and the related humanitarian crisis killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced 2.7m, according to UN figures. The fighting has tapered off since 2009, but the conflict continues to simmer and local grievances over government neglect remain.

Just days ago, JEM had renewed its threats against Khartoum, saying it would take the fight from the remote western region to the capital to topple al-Bashir's regime.


Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

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Topic: Darfur: The Arabs and their "Authentic" Genealogy
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