Minnawi says ex-Darfur rebels essential for Sudan’s stability

PORT SUDAN – The governor of Sudan’s Darfur region Minni Arko Minnawi said on Tuesday that the continued presence of joint forces is vital to Sudan’s security and stability, warning that without them, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) might have advanced into Port Sudan.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the Al-Sharif Center for Studies, Media and Training, Minnawi said the joint forces play a critical role in supporting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and maintaining public order.

He accused what he called “racists” of downplaying their importance to the nation’s safety.

Minnawi is the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) faction. His group and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Justice Minister Jibril Ibrahim forms the main groups making up the Joint Forces of Armed Struggle Movement (JSAMF), a coalition of former Darfur rebels aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

In recent months, there have been tensions between the Joint Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces who have repeatedly called for demilitarization of the capital Khartoum to create the necessary security conditions for return of civilians.

Controversial figures in the Sudanese politics have also called on the Sudanese military to force Joint Forces still in the capital to go to front lines in Darfur and Kordofan.

Minnawi said the forces must remain under army command and pointed to earlier agreements—including those signed in 1971, the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Abuja, and Doha—that all called for comprehensive security-sector reform.

“They came from the womb of the Sudanese cause, which has been written about for more than seventy years,” he said, describing the joint forces as a product of Sudan’s long struggle for peace and stability.

He said the legal foundation for the troops derives from the Juba Peace Agreement, which required the deployment of joint forces in Darfur for 39 months as part of transitional security arrangements.

Minnawi said Sudan’s political crisis stems from the structural weaknesses of the state that politicians ignored after independence, calling this “a fundamental mistake.”

He added that the country’s chronic instability was worsened by the concentration of development in Khartoum after the RSF’s takeover.

“If development had been balanced,” he said, “the situation today would have been far better.”