Ahmed Diraige

Ahmad Ibrahim Diraige is the former governor of the Sudanese province of Darfur and current head of the National Redemption Front alliance of rebel groups in the Darfur conflict. He currently resides in the United Kingdom.

Diraige is a Fur, born to a shartai (paramount chief). In December 1963, as a young politician, he created the Darfur Development Front (DDF) to create a common agenda to advocate for the region's interests. However, he proved unable to bring all the provincial interests into a common front. Although, the Front was popular from its creation with Fur because of its founder's ethnic connections, it was open to all Darfuris; its name suggesting that "development" should be the primary concern of political action. By the time of the February 1968 election, the politics had become ethnically polarized between rival factions of the Umma Party. Sadiq al-Mahdi, calculating that the province's demographics favored the "African" tribes, successfully courted the DDF, leaving Imam al-Hadi to mobilize the "Arab" vote. Sadiq's faction won 13 of 24 seats, while the faction led by al-Hadi received seven. The factions were reconciled only when the parliamentary government was overthrown by the military coup of Col. Gaafar Nimeiry in May 1969. Both Diraige and al-Sadiq were arrested, while al-Hadi was executed.

In 1979, Darfuris rioted after their province became the only one in which the governor, al-Tayeb al-Mardi, was not locally chosen. Nimeiry had chosen al-Tayeb al-Mardi to oversee the support to the Chadian guerilla force led by Hissène Habré, but grew concerned that he was losing control of the situation. In January 1980, he dismissed al-Tayeb al-Mardi and appointed Diraige. The appointment of the DDR leader resulted in an immediate lessening of tensions. Diraige refused to accept a salary and quickly concentrated on replacing posts filled due to political patronage with largely apolitical civil servants from across the ethnic spectrum who had all been affiliated with the DDF since 1964. The many problems facing the provincial government, including rising racial tensions, the accumulated administrative neglect and spillover from the conflict in Chad, was soon superseded by steadily diminishing rains. In the 1981 provincial elections, ethnicity had become a dominant political factor and Diraige, with his large Fur base of support and long out of jail, easily won the governorship. His election, in turn sparked plans by Darfuri Arabs to join with the Zaghawa and Fellata and form an "Arab Alliance."

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