$246m bounty for rebel leader

2008-05-13 14:02

Mohamed Osman

Khartoum - The Sudanese government has doubled its bounty for the country's most wanted Darfur rebel leader whose troops staged a daring raid on the outskirts of Khartoum last week, according to a state Television report on Tuesday.

The TV said the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's government increased twofold a reward for Khalil Ibrahim, who heads Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement, to 500 million Sudanese pounds - $246m - almost ten times the amount the US has offered for its most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden.

According to the TV report, the bounty will go to whoever helps nab Ibrahim, who has been on the run since Saturday's attack on Khartoum. It also said that the Sudanese security intercepted a message exchange between Ibrahim and Chadian authorities in which he allegedly asks Chad to send him a getaway helicopter.

Military unsuccessfully pursued them

The television said that Ibrahim appears to be in a deserted area in northeast Darfur. Ibrahim's followers reached the outskirts of Khartoum on Saturday, after racing across the vast arid terrain of central Sudan with little obstruction - even though the military spotted and unsuccessfully pursued them - to make it to the capital's doorstep.

The attack, which Khartoum later said it had repelled, shocked the government, which is now conducting a full scale manhunt for Ibrahim and cracking down on other opposition figures.

Islamist opposition politician Hassan al-Turabi, accused of links to JEM, was detained and questioned on Monday, before being released uncharged. The TV report gave no further details about the bounty.

On Sunday, the state TV for the first time broadcast a file photo of the JEM leader, asking citizens to call a special hotline if they saw Ibrahim.

Ibrahim vowsd to keep up his offensive

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Ibrahim vowed to keep up his offensive against the Sudanese government, saying he can exhaust the military by fighting it all across Africa's largest nation.

Ibrahim said he was speaking by phone while on the run in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, and that he was allegedly "not safe" but still with his troops.

It was the closest that Darfur's rebels have ever gotten to the seat of the government. Ibrahim's movement has emerged as the most effective rebel group in Darfur, where ethnic Africans took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003 to fight discrimination.

Ibrahim's close family ties with the powerful Chad-based Zaghwa tribe has bolstered his ranks and military capabilities, especially as relations have declined between Sudan and its western neighbour. Al-Bashir has accused Chad of being behind the weekend attack and warned that his government reserved the right to retaliate.

Chad's government, meanwhile, announced late on Monday that its border with Sudan was closed.

- AP