05.06.2007 - Source: UK Home Office

Information on the split between NDA and Eastern Front ("Operational Guidance Note: Sudan") [ID 24327]

"In June 2005, the Government and the NDA signed a reconciliation deal allowing the NDA into a power-sharing administration.

However, the Eastern Front (comprising the Beja Congress, Free Lion and the JEM), formed later in 2005, has effectively split from the NDA and does not consider itself bound by the June 2005 agreement.

All those detained following the January 2005 demonstrations had been released by the end of June 2005 and there have been no reports of significant confrontations since."

Document(s): Open document

20.04.2006 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

East: Beja Congress and Free Lions formed new political movement Eastern Front ("10th European Country of Origin Infomation Seminar Budapest, 1 - 2 December 2005: Final Report on Sudan") [#49770],  [ID 19060]

"In the East of Sudan, there is a third regional political movement which is asking for more influence in national politics and the sharing of resources and wealth, like the southerners and the Darfurians before. This movement is formed by the Beja Congress and the Free Lions. The Beja Congress was part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella organisation of opposition parties which was formed after the coup in 1989 and has its seat in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. When there was a rapprochement between the NDA and the current government in January 2005, the Beja Congress reacted by withdrawing from the NDA and allying itself with the Free Lions, which is another regional aspirational movement in the East, to form the “Eastern Front”. Whereas the Beja Congress recruits mostly amongst Beja and other peoples in the East, roughly speaking, north of Kassalla, the Free Lions are mostly of Rashaida ethnicity, i.e. more active south of Kassalla. Both groups have political and armed wings. They receive support from the government of Eritrea.
Popular support for the Eastern Front is reportedly growing, especially among disenfranchised youths in Port Sudan, Kassala and other areas."

Document(s): Open document