One of the seven senior SPLA-North officers removed from active service and designated 'retired' in early August has criticised SPLM-North chairman Malik Agar for refusing to relinquish the chairmanship of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) to the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, saying Agar is behaving undemocratically.

SRF is a coalition of Darfur rebel groups including JEM and the SPLM-North, which controls parts of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. At a leadership meeting last weekend in Paris, members of the group's leadership body disagreed about who should chair the rebel coalition.

Part of the SRF claim the ouster of Malik Agar but he has denied this claiming to still be chairman. In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, the retired Brigadier Yasir Ja’afar Sanhouri said the move by the SPLA-North leader Malik Agar refusing to relinquish the leadership is “not good”.

He pointed out that whoever believes in democracy should practice it since the change of leadership is pursuant to the principal of a rotational presidency stipulated in the constitution.

Sanhouri stressed that the acting SRF leadership led by Malik Agar and Yasser Arman should respect laws and principles of the alliance. He said the SRF is a very important rebel coalition to supporters of the SPLA-North movement.

Sanhouri added that the seven retired officers on Monday came up with an initiative for structural and institutional reform within the SPLA-North, saying the program aims at selecting good leaders for the rebel movement.

In its statement, the dissident group criticized the current leadership style. The retired general appealed to the SPLA-North leadership to listen to voices of the supporters and broaden the scope of participation in decision-making process within the movement.