CAIRO — Sudan employed Al Qaida operatives to fight African
Union troops in Darfour.
An official Sudanese document disclosed that Khartoum ordered
authorities to allow Al Qaida fighters to enter the country and deploy in
the war-torn Darfour province. The 2004 document, published by the Sudan
Tribune, said Al Qaida was permitted to resume its activities in Sudan.
The directive was signed by Sudanese presidential adviser Majzoub Al
Khalifa. Al Khalifa, said to have been acting on behalf of the ruling
National Congress Party, was killed in a car accident in June 2007.
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Al Khalifa and military commanders ordered Sudanese government agencies
to enable "foreign jihadis who came to Sudan with Osama Bin Laden in 1994 to
resume their political activities in Sudan given the circumstances
surrounding foreign intervention in Darfour to support armed forces and the
people of Sudan to fight Zionist enemies," the document, dated April 27,
2004, said. The document was found by the Kosh Liberation Movement.
Western intelligence sources said Al Qaida has been employed to fight
rebel groups in Darfour. They said Syria also tested chemical weapons in
attacks on rebel-held civilian villages in the Sudanese province.
But the document, a copy of which was sent to both Al Qaida as well as
President Omar Bashir, was the first time that Sudan outlined its support
for Al Qaida. The 2004 directive stipulated the return of all property
confiscated from Al Qaida in 1996 as well as the restoration of the
movement's bank accounts.
Al Qaida was believed to have remained in Darfour. In 2006, Al Qaida's
No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri called for a holy war against a proposed United Nations
force in Darfour.
