Former President Bechir is accused of committing war crimes and genocide in Darfur. There remains one last rebel group: the Sudan Liberation Army. They live in ...

With the Sudan Liberation Army, the last rebel group in Darfur

According to their military leader, the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army have 60 to 70,000 fighters in its ranks.

Text by: Sébastien Nemeth Follow

4 min

Former President Bechir is accused of committing war crimes and genocide in Darfur.

There remains one last rebel group: the Sudan Liberation Army.

The latter live in their stronghold of Jebel Marra.

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From our special envoy to Darfur,

The movement holds much of the Jebel Marra mountain range in West Darfur.

Region which culminates at 3000 m of altitude.

An area with dirt, stone and sand paths.

Impassable for cars.

The inhabitants move on foot, on donkeys, camels, to transport water and a whole pile of goods.

They live in villages made up of circular stone houses, with perimeter walls and fields.

The fertile lands of Jebel Marra are located in the heights, where it is more humid, which allows people to grow wheat, sesame and various fruits.

Spartan living conditions

We also come across groups of rebels on foot, machine guns and AK47s on their shoulders, going up and down the mountain.

The Sudanese Liberation Army rebel headquarters are located in Toran Tonga.

A village with its small round houses and their thatched roofs.

The rebels circulate in the locality, but the nerve center of the movement is opposite, in the middle of a pine forest.

There is a large field used as a training camp.

The combatants sleep in barracks or in the surrounding villages.

They cook there in large pots under the pines and eat outside.

The nights are cold, they are isolated, and you have to walk in the mountains.

Spartan living conditions.

The SLA is the only rebel group in Darfur that did not sign the October peace accords.

The rebellion believes that those who signed did so out of personal interest, to obtain positions.

Then the group believes that despite the fall of the dictatorship, despite the October peace agreement, the roots of the conflict in Darfur are still there.

Interethnic tensions continue

It must be said that inter-ethnic tensions remain strong between Arab tribes, which the dictatorship had supported during the war, and non-Arab tribes.

Thousands of displaced people cannot return to their villages of origin because they are occupied.

And the attacks continue.

Villages are still targeted today, with murders and rapes.

Finally, the SLA believes that within the Sudanese power today, some high-ranking people have blood on their hands and that they should be judged.

The group claims 60 to 70,000 fighters.

It is impossible to verify.

They have light weapons.

Kalashnikovs, machine guns, rocket launchers.

The SLA has no armor, no air assets.

When planes bomb, the rebels hide in caves.

So it's a limited force that has lost a dozen localities since 2016.

They say they are financing themselves.

The people of Jebel Marra help them anyway, apparently spontaneously.

There are also gold mines in Jebel Marra and the SLA is said to take 50% of the ore harvested.

With the Sudan Liberation Army, the last rebel group in Darfur

With the Sudan Liberation Army, the last rebel group in Darfur

Spartan living conditions

Interethnic tensions continue

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