Khartoum, May 11: Sudan has sought Interpol’s help for the arrest in Egypt of Justice and Equality Movement rebel movement leader Khalil Ibrahim, a website close to the country’s intelligence services reported.
In an interview with the Sudanese Media Centre, a daily close to the secret services, Justice Minister Abdel Bassit Sabdarat said he had asked Interpol to “arrest” Ibrahim “wherever he is located” so that he can face justice.
A Sudanese special court accuses Ibrahim of masterminding an unprecedented attack by his JEM rebels on Omdurman, the twin city of the capital.
The fighting resulted in the deaths of more than 220 people and the capture of a large number of rebels. Special courts later condemned 105 to death.
President Omar al-Beshir had said the death sentences would be quashed and that 30 percent of JEM’s militants would be freed after a ceasefire deal was signed in February in Doha, Qatar.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum and its allies.
Over the last six years, the rebels have fractured into multiple movements, fraying rebel groups, banditry, flip-flopping militias and the war has widened into overlapping tribal conflicts.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.7 million fled their homes.
Many of the rebels enjoy direct and indirect foreign support that helped fuel the conflict, with some critics pointing the finger at France, which has a military presence in neighbouring Chad – also accused of arming the Sudanese rebels.
—Agencies