Africa

Reverend June Major has undertaken unorthodox protests to get the Anglican church of Southern Africa to investigate her case.

September 28, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese army on Monday said Darfur holdout rebels attacked one of its positions in Jebel Marra area of Central Darfur, but the group denied the accusation.

SLM-AW fighters on guard during a visit by UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari to Fanga Suk village, in East Jebel Marra, West Darfur, on 18 March 2011 (Photo: Reuters)

Fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLM-AW) attacked our forces in Baldong area of Jebel Marra, said a statement by the Military Media Centre in Khartoum.

"Our forces dealt with the assailants and repulsed them," said the statement without further details about the human causalities.

"The armed forces will continue to protect the homeland, complete peace, and confront everyone who targets the security and safety of the country and its citizens," further said the statement.

The statement pointed out that this attack came despite the commitment of the armed forces to a cease-cessation of hostilities and the peace processes that have become a reality in the country.

On October 16 2019, the head of the Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, declared a ceasefire in the whole country.

Denial of the attack

The SLM-AW Military Spokesman Walid Mohamed Abakar issued a statement dismissing that his group had launched the attack and pointed an accusing finger to the Sudanese army saying they were behind the assault.

"The Khartoum government forces launched a treacherous attack on the sites under our control in the western part of the Jebel Marra. Our forces were able to repel the cowardly aggression, defeated the assailing force and inflicted heavy losses on them," said Abakar

In a recent report to the Security Council covering the period from 1 June to 31 August, the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the SLM-AW attacked the Sudanese army checkpoint in Kutrum, Central Darfur, killing 27 soldiers while they lost 9 elements.

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September 27, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who is also the head of African Union Bureau would consult the heads of state and government of Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt to decide on the next step in the stalled talks on the Ethiopian dam.

Talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) failed to make progress after the unilateral first phase of the filing of its reservoir and demand by Addis Ababa to adopt a new approach to negotiations, putting aside what had been agreed in the past years.

Last August Ethiopia proposed an immediate agreement on the first filling of the mega-dam to be followed negotiations "to finalize a comprehensive agreement in subsequent periods".

However, the Ethiopian proposal triggered a strong Sudanese rejection. Khartoum reiterated that its commitment to what had been agreed and called for a legally binding agreement over the mechanism for resolving future disputes, and how to manage the dam during drought periods.

In a letter to the irrigation and foreign ministers in three countries on 23 September, Naledi Pandor South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation said she would consult the African Union Chairperson on the current pause in negotiations.

"Given the lack of progress in the process, it is perhaps best that the AU Chair President Ramaphosa reverts to the Bureau and the Heads of state of the negotiating parties," Pandor said in her letter seen by Sudan Tribune.

"The African Union Commission will advise as to the date of the next meeting," she further stressed.

The parties had to meet on 14 September but Khartoum declined the meeting as it calls to reshape the process and that the African Union, the European Union and the United States should be more involved in the process than playing the observers.

Sudanese officials say the talks are in a vicious cycle as every party sticks to its position. A mediator can bring the parties to reconcile their positions, they say.
On Friday, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the UN General Assembly that his country has no intention of harming Sudan and Egypt with a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile.

“I want to make it abundantly clear that we have no intention to harm these countries,” he said in a pre-recorded video statement.

"We are steadfast in our commitment to addressing the concerns of downstream countries and reaching a mutually beneficial outcome in the context of the ongoing AU-led process," further stressed Abiy said.

Earlier this month, The United States suspended $130 million in aid because of the unilateral first stage of the filling of the dam last July.

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September 27, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The leader of the National Umma Party (NUP) and former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi said normalization with Israel a sort of surrender that has nothing to do with peace.

The leader of Sudan's opposition National Umma Party (NUP), Sadiq al-Mahdi (Reuters photo)

"Normalization is a soft name for surrender and has no connection with peace. Now, no Arab country is militarily confronting Israel. The current confrontation is with popular and non-governmental forces," he said.

"As Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer said in their book 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy', these forces give extremists a powerful recruitment tool, broaden the pool of potential terrorists and their sympathizers, and contribute to Islamic radicalism. This is what really happens," he further stressed.

Last week, the head of the Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Minister of Justice Nasr al-Din Abdel Bari discussed for three days in Abu Dhabi normalization with Israel but failed to strike a deal.

The Sudanese delegation requested approximatively $10 billion during the upcoming three years to deal with the economic crisis and debt relief. Also, they said that normalization should intervene once Sudan is removed from the terror list.

Al-Burhan who is more enthusiastic to the normalization than the Prime Minister Hamdok had already met with Israeli Prime Minister in Uganda last February.

Al-Mahdi who is opposed to the move further recalled that the mandate of the transitional government does not enable it to engage in any initiatives that push the country into controversial positions.

The former prime minister stressed that "the current normalization project has nothing to do with peace, but rather a prelude to an upcoming war with Iran, and improve chances of winning the election for the American president and the prime minister of Israel."

The Sudanese street is divided over the normalization with Israel before a peace agreement is signed with the Palestinians.

Sudanese youth who staged six-month protests that led to the collapse of the Islamist regime are generally favourable to the move.

However, the political components of the ruling Forces for Freedom and Change are divided over the normalization.

The DUP of Sadiq al-Mahdi, the Communist party and some small ban-Arab political forces are opposed to the process.

The remaining political forces including the armed groups that will join the government after the signing of 3 October peace agreement are supportive to the rapprochement.

However, Hamdok who seeks consensus among the political forces says Sudanese should hold more dialogue on the issue to ensure a smooth transition in the country towards a democratic rule.

Previously, he said he had no mandate to engage the process but he accepted to engage discussions on the normalization when he dispatched a delegation to discuss the matter with the American officials in Abu Dhabi.

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September 27, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The European Union and the World Bank Saturday signed a partnership agreement to manage $110 million to fund Sudan Family Support Programme (SFSP) provided by the European countries.

This European support is critical for the Sudanese government to implement tough economic reforms including the end of commodities subsidies which would affect poor families.

"The signed agreement allocates a total amount of EUR 92.9 million (USD 110 million) to the Sudan Transition and Recovery Support (STARS) Multi-Donor Trust Fund administered and managed by the World Bank," said a statement released by the EU office in Khartoum.

The trust fund is the primary financing mechanism for the government-led and implemented Sudan Family Support Program.

At the occasion, the ambassadors of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden also announced their support, summing up to $78.2 million USD, bringing the total Team Europe contribution to the SFSP to $186.6 million.

The Sweden Ambassador said in a tweet after the signing ceremony that her country signed bilateral support to the programme of almost $25 million, through the World Bank.

The signing ceremony was held at the Prime Minister's Office in the presence of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, the Ministers of Labour and Social Development, Culture and Information, the Acting Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, European Ambassadors and UN officials.

The agreement was signed by Ambassador of the European Union to Sudan, Robert van den Dool and Ousmane Dione, Country Director for Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan of the World Bank.

Hamdok commended the efforts made by the World Bank, the exemplary cooperation with the EU and its member states and the steps in following on the pledges made in the Berlin Conference.

Today's ceremony marks “an important step in enabling the civilian-led Transitional Government to provide the much-needed assistance to the most vulnerable Sudanese as the cabinet accelerates its urgent economic reforms,” he said.

For his part, EU Ambassador Robert van den Dool said that the European Union is making good on its pledge at the Berlin conference in June 2020, to support the transitional government in its efforts to launch economic reforms.

"Together with the contributions announced today by EU member states, we have also shown that this Team Europe Approach allows us to join forces very effectively with our partners to make an even bigger difference for Sudan and its people," den Dool added.

He also, disclosed that the European Union has also helped in triggering the World Bank to consider contributing substantially with resources which will be decided by its Board in the coming days.

The Sudan Family Support Programme is led and implemented by the Sudanese government. The Programme is being implemented by the Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Labour and Social Development, and Interior, along with other relevant agencies, and will be executed by the Digital Economy Agency.

The pilot phase is being launched in October 2020 and the program will be gradually scaled up over the next few months, starting with the states of Khartoum, Red Sea, South Darfur and Kassala.

The second phase will roll out to the other most affected states.

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September 27, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok renewed calls on the international community to support Sudan to overcome the economic crisis that badly hit his country, stressing on the need to remove his country from the blacklist of terrorism.

In a pre-recorded speech to a remote session of the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, Hamdok said that the transitional period faces huge challenges requiring the continued international support to address it.

The Sudanese premier added that exempting Sudan's foreign debts and obtaining soft loans as well as fulfilling the pledges made during the Sudan Partners Conference in Berlin last June are among the types of support his country is calling for.

"But before all, comes Sudan's removal from the list of states sponsors of terrorism. So that our country could complete its return to the international community after a forced interruption that lasted for three decades," he said.

"In this context, I would like to commend the recent steps taken by the U.S. administration and the U.S. Congress in support of the transitional government, including the determination to accelerate steps to rescind Sudan's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism," he stressed.

Hamdok was alluding to a group of U.S lawmakers including Christopher Coons who drafted legislation to restore Sudan's sovereign immunities before the courts. Also, It was reported the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is now supporting the move.

Only remains opposed to this legislation, the Democrat Senator Robert Menendez who previously was very hostile to the regime of Omer al-Bashir.

In a recent letter to Congress, U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that the administration would remove Sudan from the blacklist in October.

The rescission of Sudan designation as a terror state will allow the east African nation to negotiate debt relief and obtain financial support for its development programmes as well as zero-interest loans.

In his virtual intervention before the General Assembly, Hamdok said that the transitional government has inherited a “paralyzed economy” and a “weak, devastated service sector”, including a health system that had been neglected for decades.

Sudan has also been hit by recent torrential rain and floods which have caused severe loss of life and property. Tens of thousands of homes have either partially or completely collapsed, he told the General Assembly.

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Central African Republic, like nearly every nation on the planet, has not been spared by the COVID-19 pandemic, with indictors predicting a contraction by up to 1.2 of the country’s economic growth, President Faustin Archange Touadera said on Thursday, calling on world leaders to unite against the virus. 

Somalia is working with its international partners to build a democratic, inclusive and prosperous country for its citizens, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as ‘Farmajo’, told the UN General Assembly on Thursday. 

Libya, as a country of transit for migrants, cannot surmount the associated challenges without international support, the country’s Head of State told world leaders gathered virtually for the UN General Assembly, rejecting “unilateral” reports on the situation of migrants. 

Humanitarians have stepped up assistance to communities “on the brink”, who have been affected by devastating flooding in Africa’s Sahel region, where several hundred thousand people have been displaced by seasonal rains.

Grace Umutoni grew up not knowing her birth name, only that her parents had been killed in the Rwandan genocide.

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The Inspector General of Police(IGP), Mr James Oppong-Buanuh, has paid a working visit to the Western Regional Police command to assess their preparedness for the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in December.

A 45-year-old man Emmanuel Kwakye has committed suicide after allegedly murdering his girlfriend, Georgina Sayel. Deputy Superintendent of Police, (DOP) Irene Serwaah Oppong, the Regional Police Public Relations Officer, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency.

Mr Justin Kodua Frimpong, the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), has said head count and electronic validation conducted in 2017 revealed that 17,607 non-existing beneficiaries under the Agency were receiving monthly stipends during the previous Mahama administration.