SPLM-N and Popular Defense Forces field commanders meet in South Kordofan

Army back local peace initiative while reinforcing Kadugli

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Commanders of the SPLM-North (al-Hilu) met face-to-face with representatives of the Popular Defense Forces militia of Emir Kafi Tayara in South Kordofan to try to ease tensions between the two sides.

Tayara’s militia, though affiliated with the Sudan Armed Forces, is comprised of ethnic Nuba—the same as the SPLM-North.

Tayara recently received a letter from the SPLM-N chief-of-staff, Ezzat Kuku, which he interpreted as threatening and two-faced. Sources told Sudan War Monitor that Tayara previously had received guarantees from the SPLM-N commander-in-chief, Abdelaziz al-Hilu, though an intermediary, that he could move freely within SPLM-North areas (though not his forces), and nobody should harm him.

Ezzat Kuku’s letter, on the other hand, asked Tayara to be on the side of SPLM-N as the only way to guarantee his safety.

When Kafi Tayara received this letter, he forwarded it to the Sudan Armed Forces, then he held a general conference for all Nuba in Kadugli, September 24, 2023, and decla…