ASMARA, 24 February 2005 — Two eastern Sudanese rebel groups, the Beja Congress and the Free Lions, have merged to form a new party called the Eastern Front, officials from the organizations announced here yesterday. The “suffering of the people of Eastern Sudan ... can come to an end only under one leadership and unified programs and objectives,” said Beja Congress Chairman Mussa Mohammed Ahmed.

“We are ready for peace talks with the government based on the Naivasha model, the peace accord between Khartoum and South Sudan,” he said, flanked by Free Lions chief Mabruk Mubarak Selim at a joint news conference. The Naivasha agreement, concluded at a signing ceremony in Kenya in January, ended Sudan’s 21-year north-south civil war in Sudan pitting Khartoum against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The painstakingly negotiated accord ended Africa’s longest-running civil conflict with a series of power and wealth-sharing packages. Like other Sudanese rebel movements, including those in the troubled western region of Darfur, the Eastern Front says its region has been a victim of “marginalization” by Khartoum.

At the news conference in the Eritrean capital yesterday the front called for “a just sharing of the wealth of the national resource.” In early February, 14 people were killed when Sudanese police dispersed a riot in Port Sudan which they blamed on the Beja Congress. The Beja Congress has disputed the official death toll and maintains that 36 people were in fact killed.

The Beja Congress claims to be the sole representative of eastern Sudan and last year, along with the Free Lions, withdrew from the national opposition umbrella National Democratic Alliance, charging its demands were not being taken into account in talks with Khartoum.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said yesterday it had complained to the Sudanese government about the harassment and sometimes temporary detention of aid workers in areas of Darfur. “While security incidents in Darfur appear to have reduced in numbers, harassment of NGO (non-governmental organization) humanitarian workers in south Darfur continues,” UN spokesman George Somerwill told a news conference in Khartoum.

He said a Sudanese aid worker employed by an international NGO was detained on Feb. 17, while on the same day a foreign aid worker and four Sudanese employees working for another international agency were also detained. “All were released on bail, but the (UN) humanitarian coordinator expressed his serious concern to the government,” Somerwill said, adding that the detentions were carried out by the local South Darfur state authorities.

He said harassment of aid workers had continued in the past two or three months despite an improving security situation. “It is totally unacceptable that in a country where the humanitarian needs are so great that the people who are here to try to help Darfuris and particularly south Darfuris should face this kind of difficulty. Their lives are hard enough already,” Somerwill said.

The United Nations has previously raised similar concerns with the Sudanese authorities about arrests and harassment of aid workers. After years of tribal conflict over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the government of neglect and of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages. Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.