Juba Peace Agreement Failed to Address the Ongoing Genocide in Sudan

by Lt. General Abakar M. Abdallah, Jerome B. Gordon, and Deborah Martin[i]

Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo (Hemeti)

On the cusp of the signing a Peace Agreement in Juba, South Sudan with the Sudan Revolutionary Front, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo (Hemeti) issued a statement circulating in Sudanese media calling for “full relations with Israel, not just normalization”. In a televised interview from his residence in Juba, “Israel is developed, and we want to see where we can benefit.” He added, “The whole world is working with Israel, and the great countries are working with Israel in terms of technology and in terms of agriculture.” Hemeti, who signed the Peace Agreement with the SRF is Commander of the notorious Rapid Support Force/ Janjaweed Militias that conducts ethnic cleansing operations in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile State.

Hemeti is looking to the Israeli Government and US Administration as enablers of normalization to give him cover for his crimes committed against the Darfur people and protesters in both Darfur and Khartoum. The problem is not limited to Hemeti but also includes those in the Transitional Military Council who abetted the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing to further their personal interests and the goal of Islamist supremacy over indigenous people of Sudan through Jihad.   

We note that holdouts among Sudan resistance groups who did not sign the Juba Peace Agreement are the Sudan Liberation Movement lead by Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) and the Sudan People Liberation Movement – North of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile state led by Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N).  El Hilu rejected the Juba Peace Agreement because of the involvement of Hemeti. Moreover, leader of the displaced North Darfur community, Mohammed Abdallah was cited in the same Dabanga Radio news report that the Juba Peace Agreement “does not differ much from previous agreements (of the Bashir Regime) and does not include all armed struggle movements. He demanded that this agreement “include the real stakeholders those really affected by the war”.  

The Juba peace agreement is nothing more than thinly disguised attempt to neutralize the resistance movements; using a carefully planned disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process. First, they disarm resistance fighters of their heavy weapons and trucks leaving them with small arms that will be stored in a designated compound supervised by the Security Arrangements Team. Not surprisingly, the disarmament process neither includes the RSF/Janjaweed militias or demands for their removal from indigenous villages. The militias will remain with their weapons occupying seized farms and villages. These militias cannot be disarmed because they are members of RSF/Janjaweed militias bearing Sudan’s Armed Forces Identification Cards. Additionally, the agreement gives the RSF/Janjaweed militias legal claims to properties that they illegally expropriated from the villagers in Darfur under a bizarre form of peaceful coexistence.  How could the villagers return from IDP camps and live in their villages occupied by well-organized and armed militias supported by the state when there is no neutral monitoring force present to hold the rampaging RSF/Janjaweed militias responsible for their actions? The militias are known to have authorization from the TMC to shoot to kill innocent civilians. Based on these facts, the Juba peace agreement is simply shielding Generals Hemeti, Abdel Fatah al Burhan and their militias from prosecution for crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing under outstanding ICC indictments while dismantling the thin line of resistance forces protecting indigenous people, their farms and villages from Jihadist rapine.

[i] Lt. Gen. Abakar M. Abdullah is Chairman of the Sudan United Movement, a native of Kutum, North Darfur and a former Chadian Senior Intelligence Officer. He is a graduate of the US Army Intelligence Center Schools at Fort Huachuca, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University, Washington, DC, and the US Army War College.  He is co-author of Genocide in Sudan: Caliphate Threatens Africa and the World, JAD Publishing, 2017.  Mr. Jerome B. Gordon is co-author of Genocide in Sudan, a Senior Editor at the New English Review and producer and co-host at Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix. Deborah Martin is a co-author of Genocide in Sudan a long term linguistic and cultural expert in Sudan affairs.