Sudanese diplomat: South Sudan can’t be trusted until they stop supplying rebels’ arms
In an interview with The Niles, the Deputy Head of Sudan’s Mission in Berlin, Khalid Musa Dafalla, said that his government had undisputed proof that the South Sudanese authorities were supporting rebels fighting against his government.
Dafalla said rebels in the states of South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Southern Darfur were being supported by the South Sudanese government. Armed vehicles were spotted crossing into South Sudan, he said.
Khalid Musa Dafalla, Deputy Head of Sudan’s Mission in Berlin.
We also have well documented evidence and recorded conversations of the leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army [the South Sudanese army] directing fighters in battle fields over the border. And we know that what’s happening in South Kordofan couldn’t continue without support from South Sudan,” he argued.
However Omar Shakran, chairperson of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), the political organisation representing the banned rebel militias in Sudan, denied this.
South Sudan is an independent country and the government there has nothing to do with the war in Sudan,” he said. We actually get most of our munitions from the government of Sudan. That’s because after we’ve fought the Sudanese forces, we capture their weaponry. It’s also true that we are supported by the people of Sudan who take our side, whether they are in the Nuba Mountains or elsewhere in Sudan. Our party is a people’s party,” he argued.
Shakran concluded by saying that the SPLM-N is fighting for a united Sudan that involves all the people of Sudan regardless of ethnicity, religion or political creed.
No matter what is actually going on, there is no doubt that the perceived link between the South Sudanese government, which had close connections with the SPLM-N before South Sudan became independent, is harming ongoing negotiations between the two neighbouring countries.
We actually get most of our munitions from the government of Sudan.”
Analyst Luka Biong Deng, a former Minister for Cabinet Affairs in Sudan, says that South Sudan may be using the SPLM-N to push their own agenda in Sudan. It made it seem that South Sudan was not fully committed to the idea of two separate states.
And Dafalla, of Sudan’s mission in Germany, said that although the South Sudanese government had expressed willingness to step in and mediate between the Sudanese and the rebels, this would not be possible unless the South Sudanese stopped assisting and arming the rebels. After that, they could be a trusted partner in the resolution of these issues, he said, but until that happened, it was not going to be like that.
The government of South Sudan should first stop supplying arms,” Dafalla says. That would give us confidence,” he concluded.
