Sudan rebel group appoints new leaders
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KHARTOUM, Sudan - A major Darfur rebel group said yesterday that it has reshuffled some of its top political and military positions to include a number of smaller groups that had joined it in the past few months.
Suleiman Sandal, a Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, member, said almost 50 percent of the executive posts had gone to newly joined members.
"We have issued these decrees because there are about 15 groups that have joined JEM since January, which means that JEM has to absorb all these groups," Sandal told Reuters via satellite phone from Darfur, in western Sudan.
"There have been big and wide changes in the military and political leaderships as well as in the advisers," he said.
Earlier this month Sandal said 22 political and military leaders from a rival faction had joined his group's ranks, but a leader of the faction denied any senior figures had defected.
Veteran rebel Suleiman Jamous, who earlier this month had joined JEM, was appointed secretary of humanitarian affairs. Mansour Younis was appointed secretary of presidential affairs.
Sandal, a senior commander, has been reassigned as secretary of security and intelligence.
JEM was the only Darfur rebel group invited to February's peace talks with the Sudanese government in Doha, but has said it will not attend more talks until expelled aid groups are allowed to return to Darfur and prisoners freed.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last month on charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur.
