Sudan… Manawi’s call to take up arms receives widespread condemnation… “Civil war”
Calls by Governor of Darfur Minni Arko Minnawi for all Darfur citizens, men and women, to take up arms to protect their property have sparked wide reactions and condemnation.
Attacks on citizens have increased, Minnawi said in a tweet, accusing unnamed groups of undermining citizens’ safety and rights and intentionally sabotaging national institutions.
He added: I call on all of our dear citizens, the people of Darfur, young people, women and men, to take up arms to protect their property, and we the struggle movements will support them in all cases of defense.
Civil war
Taha Othman, a leader in the Movement for Change and Freedom, said on his Facebook page that Minnawi’s call to the people of Darfur to take up arms is tantamount to dragging the people of the region to a new civil war. If Minawi wants to declare his involvement in the conflict as one of the parties to the current war, he can do so without dragging the region into civil war.
Othman said he expects the civil war to return Darfur to a worse situation than it has lived since 2003. He called on Minawi to fulfill his duties and role as the region’s governor, communicate with the leadership of the two sides in the war, and express support to stop the fighting in the region. They also set up joint mechanisms to protect citizens against abuse, not to call on citizens to take up arms.
He stressed that the results of this call do not provide protection for citizens, but will plunge the region into a civil war on an ethnic basis because the region has not recovered from the war wound since 2003 .
At the same time, the leader of the Freedom and Change Movement appealed to the people of the region, regardless of their social affiliations, not to respond to the call and to strengthen the means and mechanisms of coexistence and social peace among the region’s components.
Breaking the Road to Negotiation
Ibrahim al-Mirghani, a leader in the Union of Origin party, said the call to arm citizens at this time is an open call for all-out civil war.
Al-Mirghani said the call was an attempt to block the Jeddah negotiation process, which is working to establish a ceasefire and end the war.
