[3] 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.
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.
Nimeiry had chosen al-Tayyib 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.
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rising racial tensions, the accumulated administrative neglect and spillover from the conflict in Chad, was soon superseded by steadily diminishing rains.
[5] 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.
Since 1977, Nimeiry had been creating an image of Sudan as the "future breadbasket of the Arab world", was furious with Diraige for sending this inconvenient letter and refused to respond.
[7] The story of Diraige, the first locally accountable governor who had been forced into exile for warning of a preventable famine, became widely known, further aggravating tensions between Darfur and the northerner-dominated government.
[10] On 23 January 2004, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha met Diraige in Nairobi, while ostensibly on hajj break from talks in Naivasha ending the war in the south.
Diraige used his personal credibility to get the Darfuri rebels to agree to talks on humanitarian matters in Geneva to be mediated by the Henri Dunant Foundation, as a trust-building first step.