Sudan Allows Darfur Rebel Leader to be Treated Abroad

The Sudanese government has agreed to allow ailing Darfur rebel leader Suleiman Jamous to travel abroad for medical treatment, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Army's humanitarian coordinator, was the key liaison between insurgents and the world's largest aid operation helping some 4.2 million people in Darfur.

The United Nations had moved him to a U.N. hospital near Darfur more than a year ago without informing Khartoum. Sudan has called him a criminal and has said it would arrest him if he left U.N. care.

But U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said the Khartoum government told the world body that Jamous was free to leave the hospital for medical treatment abroad and could return to Darfur under condition he not fight.

"The government of Sudan has made clear Suleiman Jamous was free to leave the hospital to undergo medical treatment and ... reside with his family under the condition the U.N. guarantee that he not return to Darfur to fight," Montas said.

She said the United Nations was discussing arrangements with Sudanese authorities to fly Jamous to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi for treatment "and this is now being discussed."

Jamous needs a stomach biopsy which cannot be performed in the U.N. hospital. On Monday he left the hospital for the first time in more than 13 months to walk to the nearby U.N. headquarters and ask to leave Sudan for medical treatment.

"They replied they needed time to consult with Khartoum and I have given them until Thursday," Jamous said on Monday. "Now I am becoming indifferent. If I am detained by the United Nations or the government of Sudan it is the same."

The elderly Jamous is respected in Darfur and considered a consensus builder who could help peace efforts and unify fractured rebels.

Since a 2006 peace deal signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions, the insurgents have split into more than a dozen groups, creating chaos in Darfur.

Because of increasingly violent attacks against their staff and aid convoys, the humanitarian operation has been scaled down and some 500,000 people are out of reach of vital help.

International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes in more than four years of fighting in Darfur.