The British "Middle East Eye" website has revealed that Seven Sudanese rebel groups, including former Janjaweed forces, agreed to withdraw their forces from Libya at a meeting earlier this month.
The British website pointed out that a meeting was held in Niger from June 10 to 12, at the invitation of a French organization, was attended by representatives from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Norway, Turkey and Egypt.
The meeting discussed practical ways to disarm the rebel groups and how they might be reintegrated into the national army, the British website said, adding that the forces that are regarded internationally as mercenaries are made up of around 30,000 men fighting alongside the warlord Khalifa Haftar, based in the east of the country.
The website confirmed that June’s meeting was the second to discuss Sudanese armed groups in Libya as part of a broader push by regional and international powers to withdraw all mercenaries, indicating that another meeting was held in February and attended by the rebels and representatives from the governments of Sudan, Chad, Niger, and Libya.
It also indicated that the meeting also included discussions about how to tackle terrorism in the region, illegal migration from Africa to Europe, and smuggling of weapons and drugs, alongside how international powers would pay to remove foreign forces from Libya and return them to their countries.