Ahmed Ibrahim Ali Diraige (1933 - 2020) was the former governor of the
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
ese
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
Darfur
Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...
and late head of the
National Redemption Front alliance of rebel groups in the
Darfur conflict
The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups be ...
. He was residing in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
Governorship
Diraige is a
Fur
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
, born to a ''shartai'' (paramount chief) in 1933. He died on 20 September 2020 in Botswana, and has been buried on 30 September 2020 in the state of Central Darfur. As a young politician, he created the
Darfur Development Front (DDF) to create a common agenda to advocate for the region's interests. However, he proved unable to bring all the provincial interests into a common front. Although, the Front was popular from its creation with Fur because of its founder's ethnic connections, it was open to all Darfuris; its name suggesting that "development" should be the primary concern of political action. By the time of the February 1968 election, the politics had become ethnically polarized between rival factions of the
Umma Party
The National Umma Party ( ar, حزب الأمة القومي , translit=Hizb al-Umma al-qawmmy; en, Nation Party) is an Islamic political party in Sudan. It was formerly led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, who served twice as Prime Minister of Sudan, and ...
.
Sadiq al-Mahdi
Sadiq al-Mahdi ( ar, الصادق المهدي, aṣ-Ṣādiq al-Mahdī; 25 December 193526 November 2020), also known as Sadiq as-Siddiq, was a Sudanese political and religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again f ...
, calculating that the province's demographics favored the "African" tribes, successfully courted the DDF, leaving
Imam al-Hadi to mobilize the "Arab" vote. Sadiq's faction won 13 of 24 seats, while the faction led by al-Hadi received seven. The factions were reconciled only when the parliamentary government was overthrown by the military coup of Col.
Gaafar Nimeiry
Jaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry (otherwise spelled in English as Jaafar Nimeiry, Gaafar Nimeiry or Ja'far Muhammad Numayri; ar, جعفر محمد النميري; 26 April 192830 May 2009) was a Sudanese politician who served as the president of Sud ...
in May 1969. Both Diraige and al-Sadiq were arrested, while al-Hadi was executed.
In 1979, Darfuris rioted after their province became the only one in which the governor,
al-Tayeb al-Mardi, was not locally chosen. Nimeiry had chosen al-Tayeb al-Mardi to oversee the support to the
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
ian guerilla force led by
Hissène Habré
Hissène Habré (Arabic: ''Ḥusaīn Ḥabrī'', Chadian Arabic: ; ; 13 August 1942 – 24 August 2021), also spelled Hissen Habré, was a Chadian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 5th president of Chad from 1982 u ...
, but grew concerned that he was losing control of the situation. In January 1980, he dismissed al-Tayeb al-Mardi and appointed Diraige. The appointment of the DDR leader resulted in an immediate lessening of tensions. Diraige refused to accept a salary and quickly concentrated on replacing posts filled due to political patronage with largely apolitical civil servants from across the ethnic spectrum who had all been affiliated with the DDF since 1964. The many problems facing the provincial government, including rising racial tensions, the accumulated administrative neglect and spillover from the conflict in Chad, was soon superseded by steadily diminishing rains. In the 1981 provincial elections, ethnicity had become a dominant political factor and Diraige, with his large Fur base of support and long out of jail, easily won the governorship. His election, in turn sparked plans by Darfuri Arabs to join with the
Zaghawa Zaghawa may refer to:
* Zaghawa people
* Zaghawa language
Zaghawa is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel) and northwestern Sudan (Darfur). The people who speak this language call it Beria, from ''Be ...
and
Fellata
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...
and form an "Arab Alliance."
The Diraige government soon realized that they could not dig water boreholes quickly enough to make up for the lowered amount of rainfall. In November 1983, Diraige wrote a letter to Nimeiry warning him that, unless foreign food aid was requested, Darfur faced a serious
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
. This letter would come to be known as the "famine letter." Since 1977, Nimeiry had been creating an image of Sudan as the "future breadbasket of the Arab world", was furious with Diraige for sending this inconvenient letter and refused to respond. On 23 December 1983, Diraige flew to
Khartoum
Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...
to present his case in person. Nimeiry made his displeasure clear and stated that he would not ask for aid. An arrest warrant for Diraige was issued about 48 hours later, which he escaped by flying to
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
. By August 1984, the existence of the famine was obvious and Nimeiry was forced to declare Darfur a "disaster zone". The story of Diraige, the first locally accountable governor who had been forced into exile for warning of a preventable famine, became widely known, further aggravating tensions between Darfur and the northerner-dominated government.
Exile
By 1987, the situation had worsened. The
Libya-Chad War overflowed into the province, resulting in widespread violence. Many Fur military conscripts fighting the
Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originate ...
deserted to the side of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the South Sudan, Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 198 ...
(SPLA). Sudanese Brig.
Fadlallah Burma Nasir and Chief of Staff Brig.
Fawzi Ahmed el-Fadl visited Diraige at his home in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, asking if he would come back and support the government to stop the desertion of Fur soldiers. Diraige refused. In the late 1980s, Darfuri politician
Daud Bolad Daud Yahya Ibrahim Bolad (Jan 1952- January 1992) was a Sudanese politician and rebel leader.
He came from the Fur people of the Darfur region of the country. In the early 1970s, Bolad was nominated by the Islamist National Islamic Front to be t ...
sought help from the SPLA in extending the rebellion to Darfur. Other leftist leaders, such as Diraige, believed that the SPLA would use them for its own purpose and intentionally did not associate themselves with the southern rebels. Bolad's capture in 1991 and the destruction of his resistance network was seen as confirmation that this was the correct stance.
Diraige created the
Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA), a member organization of the opposition
National Democratic Alliance
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...
. From 1996, SFDA deputy
Sharif Harir set up an office in
Asmara
Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...
,
Eritrea
Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...
, from which it actively recruited armed fighters from migrant Darfuris. On 23 January 2004, Sudanese Vice President
Ali Osman Taha met Diraige in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
, while ostensibly on
hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
break from talks in
Naivasha ending the war in the south. Diraige used his personal credibility to get the Darfuri rebels to agree to talks on humanitarian matters in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
to be mediated by the
Henri Dunant Foundation, as a trust-building first step. The government then broke Diraige's trust by publicly demanding a meeting on "national reconciliation" in Khartoum. This had been the last line of communication that the government still had with the Fur rebels. In 2003, the
Darfur Liberation Front
The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army ( ar, حركة تحرير السودان ''Ḥarakat Taḥrīr Al-Sūdān''; abbreviated SLM, SLA, or SLM/A) is a Sudanese rebel group active in Darfur, Sudan. It was founded as the Darfur Liberation FrontFlint ...
, a new rebel group fighting a steadily escalating
conflict
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
asked the SFDA for political and logistical support. Harir agreed and declared that the DLF fighters were the military wing of the SFDA. However, Diraige disagreed that this was the time for armed rebellion and the DLF got no substantive support.
This position apparently changed. In June 2006, Diraige was named the head of the
National Redemption Front, a coalition of the SFDA,
Justice and Equality Movement
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM; ar, حركة العدل والمساواة, ') is an opposition group in Sudan founded by Khalil Ibrahim. Gibril Ibrahim has led the group since January 2012 after the death of Khalil, his brother, in Dec ...
and the faction of the
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) that had not signed the May deal taken by the faction of the SLA led by
Minni Minnawi
Suliman Arcua Minnawi ( ar, سليمان أركو مناوي), known as "Minni Minnawi" (; born December 12, 1968 in Furawiyya, North Darfur), is a Sudan, Sudanese politician who was the leader of the largest faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army ...
.
Notes and references
External links
* Tim Sebastian
"Sudan: The suffering continues" HARDtalk
''HARDtalk'' is a BBC television and radio programme broadcast on the BBC News Channel, on BBC World News, and on the BBC World Service.
Broadcast times and days vary, depending on broadcasting platform and geographic location. ''HARDtalk' ...
interview of Diraige -
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, 4 August 2004
SUDAN: Veteran Darfur leader blames conflict on marginalisation IRIN, November 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diraige, Ahmad
Sudanese politicians
People from Darfur
Sudanese expatriates in the United Kingdom
1933 births
2020 deaths