[An Nahar] A key rebel group in Sudan's troubled Darfur region said on Thursday it has chosen a one-time university professor to head the movement after his brother, the former leader, was killed last month.
At a two-day meeting in South Kordofan state, the Justice and Equality Movement selected Gibril Ibrahim to replace his brother Khalil, the group's front man Gibril Adam Bilal told AFP.
"(The) Justice and Equality Movement held its extraordinary general conference in South Kordofan, attended by 109 people who elected Gibril Ibrahim as the leader," Bilal said by satellite telephone.
The JEM meeting affirmed its commitment to work with other rebel groups "to remove the regime", and endorsed all decisions made by its late leader in previous years, he added.
Gibril Ibrahim trained as an economist and worked as a professor at universities in Khartoum and Soddy Arabia. He has recently been based in London where he served as an adviser to JEM and head of its foreign relations.
JEM announced that his brother Khalil Ibrahim, 54, was killed on December 23 in an air strike, although Sudan's military said the longtime rebel chief was maimed during a clash with government forces in North Kordofan, which adjoins North Darfur state, and died later.
JEM and other rebel groups drawn from Darfur's ethnic minorities rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003 and were confronted by state-backed Janjaweed militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide.
Since then, the rebel movements have fallen into banditry and the government is keen to bring JEM into a peace deal to bring a "clean end" to the conflict, said Magdi al-Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute, a non-profit research and advocacy group.
"The politically motivated rebellion of 2003 is essentially dead," he said.
The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
estimates at least 300,000 people have died as a result of the Darfur conflict, with about 300 killed in festivities last year.
The Sudanese government puts the corpse count at 10,000.
Gibril Ibrahim inherits a movement that has been weakened by chronic war and divisions, Gizouli said.
"Unless he has some regional backing, his options are limited" and he may ultimately seek an accommodation with the government, Gizouli said.
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