Africa

A Cameroonian inventor wins a £25,00 ($37,000) innovation prize for creating a monitor that can diagnose heart conditions in remote areas.

Mai 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese finance minister has called to explain the economic sanctions imposed on Sudan to the commercials banks which are dealing with the east African country.

The US imposed comprehensive sanctions on Sudan in 1997 (US Embassy in Khartoum website)

Following a series of huge financial sanctions on several international banks for violating U.S sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran, the financial institutions avoid to deal with the Sudanese banks and entities even in the sectors that are not subject to sanctions.

Washington eased the sanctions imposed on agriculture equipment and services, and allowed exports of personal communications hardware and software. Also, the US Treasury Department removed the private Bank of Khartoum from a blacklist of Sudanese entities.

"The US embargo has impacted on the poor and needy segments of the Sudanese people more than the government," said the Minister of Finance Badr al-Din Mahmoud in statement to Al-Sudani newspaper on Thursday.

Mahmoud who was speaking from Lusaka, Zambia, pointed to the Sudanese Diaspora saying they are the first to be directly concerned by the sanctions because it impedes their efforts to support their families.

He added that discussed the matter with the U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary who is attending the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Lusaka and with the UK representative at the regional bank.

He said that the ''American side considers it as unilateral sanctions and it should be explained to those who are dealing with us in US Dollar''.

"Certainly we (the government) are dealing with other currencies but not the dollar. This requires an explanation for the intermediary banks that deal with the Sudanese banks," he added.

Also the minister expressed hopes that a regional clearing and settlement financial system to be set up by the AfDB will contribute to promote and develop trade within the African countries and free them from the international diktat.

Sudan has been under US economic sanctions since 1997 and remains on the US list of state sponsors of terror.

Washington admitted Sudan's cooperation in the anti-terror war but now points that it wouldn't remove Sudan from the list of states sponsor of terrorism or left economic sanctions before the end of armed conflicts in Darfur region and Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.

(ST)

The UK is set to send a Royal Navy warship to the Mediterranean to help tackle arms smuggling in Libya, Prime Minister David Cameron announces.

By Eric Reeves

May 26, 2016 - What will it take to halt the hideous spectacle of an international community that now seems prepared to give an increasingly warm embrace to the Khartoum regime, guilty of serial genocides in the Nuba Mountains (1990s), in Darfur (for thirteen years), and again in the Nuba Mountains as well as in Blue Nile (2011 to the present)?

The question becomes more exigent as the embrace becomes almost daily more encompassing. No one has yet followed the lead of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, who in April awarded indicted génocidaire and President of the Khartoum regime, Omar al-Bashir the “Medal of the Serbian Republic.” But the roster of European, Arab, and African countries that have extended open arms has grown dramatically over the past year. Recent headlines from Sudan Tribune make for shocking reading:
Poland, Sudan to engage in security and military cooperation

Sudan, UK agree to enhance economic cooperation

Sudan, UK to discuss ways to promote bilateral ties

Sudan, UK to engage in strategic dialogue

Italian commercial delegation to arrive in Khartoum next week

Germany, Sudan sign €51m cooperation agreement

Sudan receives 100 million euros from EU to stem irregular migrants

Belgium, Sudan sign loan to improve water supply

Sudanese foreign minister to meet EU officials in Brussels Monday

Another important Sudanese news outlet, Radio Dabanga reports:

EU and Sudan to strengthen dialogue and cooperation

Khartoum's strategy when confronted with international objections to its brutal domestic policies has been to wait out the tough rhetoric, calculating rightly, that the world's attention span is short and all will be forgotten soon enough. The wait was long in the case of Darfur, but with the January 2008 deployment of the UN/African Union “hybrid” Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), there was at least a fig leaf of international protection on the ground to protect civilians, and the world's attention to the region withered.

The strong but finally expedient words of candidate Obama on Darfur also took the steam out of a powerful American advocacy movement; and Khartoum worked hard to make the region inaccessible to human rights reporters, journalists, and others—and harshly threatened or abused relief organizations that might speak out about the ghastly humanitarian realities on the ground. Since 2009 the regime has expelled, for no reason, more than two dozen distinguished humanitarian groups. Last week the regime expelled the most senior official for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs without explanation; he was far from the first UN official expelled.

In flagrant violation of a 2005 UN Security Council resolution banning all military flights over Darfur, Khartoum bombs civilians targets on an almost daily basis in the Jebel Marra region in the center of Darfur. The regime also relentlessly targets civilians in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan and Blue Nile State, where there is active military resistance against the regime's 27 years of tyranny. The National Islamic Front, renamed as the “National Congress Party” for expedient reasons, came to power by military coup in June 1989. It has never held legitimate elections, has taken full control of the army and security services, and has pillaged Sudanese national wealth on a scale that staggers. Its longtime ruthless repression of political dissent, including the shutting or confiscating of newspapers, has accelerated even as the international embrace of the regime broadens.

What are these countries thinking? Do they imagine that the regime will become more accommodating because it is treated nicely? There is not a shred of historical evidence to support this notion. Do they think that somehow agreements made by Khartoum with various Sudanese parties will now mean something? This is dangerously foolish: in its entire time in power, the regime has never abided by a single agreement with any Sudanese party—not one, not ever. Even the much-celebrated 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that brought an end to the 22-year north/south civil war has been egregiously violated—most conspicuously by Khartoum's military seizure of the important Abyei region despite the terms of the Abyei Protocol within the CPA. The regime has also repeatedly attacked the sovereign territory of South Sudan, on the ground and from the air. It also has armed militia spoilers in South Sudan, despite a commitment in the CPA to halt all such support.

The consequences of 27 years of rule by kleptocracy have taken a terrible toll on the Sudanese economy, which is now in terminal decline. Khartoum made no meaningful preparations for the loss of oil revenues with the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, and now presides over an economy that desperately lacks foreign exchange currency (Forex) with which to buy critical staples—including wheat for bread. As a consequence there are severed bread shortages, bread lines, and skyrocketing price inflation. For a great many Sudanese—half of whom live below the international poverty line—this is causing acute pain. The same is true for cooking fuel, a refined petroleum product that Sudan does not produce domestically and must import.

The agricultural sector, which should be the country's strongest, has been deteriorating for years—even the “Gezira Scheme,” once the crown jewel of Sudanese agriculture, is an unproductive shambles. On top of this, the regime—to raise cash—has been selling or leasing large plots of productive agricultural land to Arab and Asian interests, concerned about their own future food security. The regime is mortgaging Sudan's future to maintain a factitious “solvency.” Khartoum abandoned long-time strategic ally Iran recently in order to re-establish friendly relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf State in order to secure a financial lifeline. It has enjoyed some success, but this is not a long-term economic strategy, simply short-term begging for money.

What is the Khartoum regime today? A brutally repressive, kleptocratic tyranny that preserves its monopoly on Sudanese national wealth and power by means of ethnically-targeted counter-insurgency efforts against its poor and under-served marginalized regions, which understandably refuse to accept this monopoly any longer.

Looming over all this is the question of U.S. policy toward Sudan. In 2011 Princeton Lyman, President Obama's second special envoy for Sudan, declared in an interview with a highly respected Arab news outlet:

"Frankly, we do not want to see the ouster of the [Sudanese] regime, nor regime change. We want to see the regime carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures." (Princeton Lyman's response to a question by the respected Arabic news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat concerning Sudan and the "Arab Spring," December 3, 2011)

Did Lyman believe the preposterous notion that the regime I've described here could “carry out reform via constitutional democratic measures"? Of course not. So we are left with the question, why did he say it?

There is good evidence that the U.S. military and intelligence communities are leaning hard on other parts of the Obama administration to seek rapprochement with Khartoum—this in order to solidify the U.S. relationship with a regime regarded as an important source of putatively valuable counter-terrorism intelligence. Will Obama cave to such pressure? He certainly abandoned his 2008 campaign commitment to the victims of genocide in Darfur. Why should we believe that he will not betray the Sudanese people as a whole just as cynically in the present moment, especially with the cover of so many European countries eager to embrace a genocidal regime?

Eric Reeves is author of Compromising With Evil: An archival history of greater Sudan, 12007 - 2012

May 26, 2016 (JUBA) – Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu, has called on the World Humanitarian Summit convened this week in Istanbul, Turkey, between 23-24 May, 2016, to prioritize the world's youngest nation in the humanitarian interventions.

Oxfam aid workers in Mingkaman, South Sudan, oversee the distribution of food to displaced people in August 2014. (Photo Pablo Tosco/Oxfam)

In his speech he delivered to the Summit and extended to Sudan Tribune, Owusu, also said the gathered global leaders should also recognize the centrality of political will to prevent and end conflicts, to address root causes, to reduce fragility and strengthen good governance in countries like South Sudan.

‘World leaders and people from all segments of society affirmed that those who are most at risk of being left behind - including the more than 60 million people displaced worldwide, 2.3 million of them in South Sudan - will receive the global attention and support they deserve,” he said.

The top humanitarian coordinator in the country, also commended that the Summit also reinforced support from all stakeholders to go beyond meeting humanitarian needs, by changing people's lives through ending needs, as well as the vital importance of gender equality, women's empowerment and women's rights becoming pillars of humanitarian
action.

“All of these issues are of course particularly pertinent in South Sudan today, where the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) brings hope that the needless suffering of so many civilians may finally come to an end,” he added.

He said the world needed to capitalize on the momentum generated by the Summit, to ensure that the global community does not allow South Sudan to become a forgotten crisis.

“The humanitarian appeal is today just 29 per cent funded. We need more contributions urgently in order to reach people in dire need across the country as they seek to regain their lives and livelihoods,” said Owusu.

“I am delighted that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hussein Mar Nyuot, and the Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul were present at the Summit. It was a pleasure to be part of the delegation.”

The gathering, he added was the first World Humanitarian Summit attended by over 9,000 participants from 173 Member States, including 55 Heads of State and Government, hundreds of private sector representatives, and thousands of people from civil society and non- governmental organizations.

“The United Nations in its 70 years has never come together at this scale, with this many different stakeholders, to discuss the pressing challenges that are resulting in so much human suffering today,” he observed.

(ST)

May 26, 2016 (YAMBIO) - Police in Yambio, capital of the newly created Gbudue state, have this week arrested one young girl, aged 17 years old, and accused of abusing her fellow young girls by giving them to men for sex in order to get money for survival.

The newly graduated fire brigade officers in Yambio March 14, 2016 (ST)

Speaking to Sudan Tribune, Edward Gbaki, Chief Inspector of Police in Yambio county, said a community representative from Malakia in Yambio town opened a case against a young girl accused of luring younger girls, aged between 11 and 14, to men for commercial sex.

It is not clear for how long the young girl has been doing this business in Yambio which led to the accusation from the community members who reported the practice to the police.

Gbaki said the accused girl however denied the accusation saying she was not giving her colleagues to men or doing commercial prostitution.

An investigation continued to prove whether it was true or not as reports had been going around in Yambio town that the child prostitution was on the rise where underage girls had been going to night clubs and bars.

According to one resident who spoke to Sudan Tribune on condition of anonymity, the number of underage girls who have been moving with men in clubs at night has increased while the state government has been doing nothing to stop it.

“When you move at night, there are many small girls moving with men in clubs at night and when you ask them they will tell you that their parents are in Tombura, Ezo and outside Yambio which gives them freedom to live anyhow,” he said.

He added that there are a number of night clubs in Yambio where small young boys and girls are congested and go about drinking alcohol without restriction.

He blamed the increase in the number of abandoned children by their parents, leaving the children to gang up and forced to opt for prostitution.

Deputy governor of Gbudue state, Victor Edward Kpiawandu, however condemned the act, saying parents and guardians of the children should take proper care of their children.

(ST)

May 26, 2016 (BOR) - A lot of schools have been forced to close due to violent conflict that erupted in the newly created Boma state in February this year.

School pupils demand creating of a conducive environment for learning in Bor, May 22, 2014 (ST)

In the Boma state, where there are more than 50 primary schools, less than 10 are currently operating, serving close to 700 pupils.

In the statement forwarded to Sudan Tribune on Thursday the governor, Baba Medan, many schools have remained close since the fighting occured between his supporters and some former cobra soldiers who wanted David Yauyau, former administer of Greater Pibor Administration, to be appointed the new state governor.

“Last year was better than this year. The enrolment this year is lower than that of last year because of the fighting, which erupted in the state. That is why you would see some schools not functioning,” said the governor.

“We are trying to reopen these schools which are now closed,” he added.

But the minister of education, Simon Korton, said lack of qualified teachers across the state remained a challenge that would be addressed next year.

“We have no teachers. If you go to Likuangole, Gumuruk, Vertet or Pochalla, you find very few teachers. We are planning to screen the teachers we have. Those who will be found not qualified will be dropped and then the ministry of education will give a chance to qualified teachers to be recruited,” he said.

Those who are teaching have low educational background, according to the ministry.

“Some teachers are primary or secondary schools drop out. Others scored very low marks from their secondary schools examinations. If you are dull, how can you teach somebody? So we will remove these people from the system and replace them with right ones,” said the minister.

(ST)

May 25, 2016 (JUBA) – Seven people were killed and equal numbers injured when unknown gunmen attacked a vehicle on a road connecting South Sudan to Uganda Wednesday.

Juba-Nimule road, South Sudan (ST)

Those killed, police said, included Ethiopians, Ugandans and South Sudanese.

“The passenger was attacked between Aru junction and another village on the road towards Agoro in the east,” said Daniel, a police officers who brought the bodies to Juba.

“The gunmen sprayed the car with bullets and fled to the bush but never looted any property in the car,” added the officer, who is not authorised to the speak to the media.

On Tuesday, a tanker driver of Somali origin was shot dead along the 193 km Juba—Nimule road, which is vital for the supply of essential items to landlocked South Sudan.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack on the usually busy highway.

South Sudan government and former rebels, the SPLM In Opposition formed a Transitional Government of National Unity last month, but no agreement has been reached on cantonment areas for rebels in Equatoria and Bahr El Ghazal regions.

President Salva Kiir's allies insists there are no active opposition forces in the two regions and described highway attacks as “criminal activities.” The SPLM-IO under the leadership of first vice president, Riek Machar said it has forces in the two regions.

Witnesses said the gunmen appeared to be well armed and organized. One survivor said the attackers spoke Arabic, a language commonly used by South Sudan's armed forces.

(ST)

May 26, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan Thursday criticized the expenditure lines in the budget of the African Union United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), saying it neglects important aspects related to peace implementation, mine clearance, and reduction of tribal conflict.

A UNAMID peacekeeper during a routine patrol in Tawila, North Darfur.(Photo UNAMID/Hamid Abdelsalam)

As the United Nations security Council is expected to extend the UNAMID mandate for another years next June, the hybrid mission is preparing to submit its new budget for the next year.

Khartoum which seeks the exit of Darfur peacekeeping mission criticized the UNAMID provisional budget for 2016-2017, pointing to the lack of spending line for what is decribed as "actual needs of the citizens in Darfur", and support the mediation efforts to complete the peace process on the basis of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).

Foreign ministry spokesperson Ali al-Sadqi told reporters that the proposed document shows that UNAMID budget for the next year will reach $1.098 billion, adding that it may be reduced by the specialized committees.

He further said the 2015-2016 budget amounted to$1.245 billion but the effective spending was at $1.222 billion He added that the surplus in the budget may encourage to reduce UNAMID budget for the upcoming year to less than a billion dollars.

He pointed that the spending lines cover mainly the salaries of UNAMID civil and military personnel, besides food, fuel, air conditioners, maintenance and spare parts for thousands of cars.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said there are some important aspects of the peace implementation process in Darfur that do not find the adequate support from "UNAMID" such as the transitional justice mechanisms including the Special Criminal Court in Darfur and law enforcement operations.

He went further to say that the hybrid mission could contribute to the demining operations, support the national and local mechanisms to end tribal conflicts, the security arrangements implementation committees, the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration programmes, and rehabilitation programmess for child soldiers.

UNAMID currently has 13,809 military personnel, 1,161 police advisers, 1,814 formed police unit officers, 762 international civilian staff, 152 United Nations volunteers, and 2,177 national civilian staff.

The hybrid mission has been deployed in darfur since December 2007.

(ST)

May 26, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – One of the rescued 56 children this week who were abducted by Murle militia group from the Ethiopian Nuer community last month said they had been locked in huts for the past four weeks by their abductors after crossing them into South Sudan.

Jany, 11-year old, was abducted with his two brothers and one sister, but was only among the rescued kids while his siblings had remained behind under the captivity of the Murle abductors.

Jany explained to his mother, Nyandhan, how the bigger boys of his age were singled out and locked alone inside huts, surrounded by heavily armed men, and given only milk to drink during their captivity.

His mother, Nyandhan, however said she was happy to see one of his children back, but added that she longed to see all of them rescued, as she praised the Ethiopian troops who have crossed into South Sudan for the rescue mission.

"I didn't believe that I would see him [Jany] ever again," she told the BBC on Wednesday, while feeding his rescued son as she held up the plate by her hand.

"I am really happy to have one of my children back. It is a blessing and it is thanks to the on-going rescue mission. I have been worrying day and night about my children, that I might never ever see them again. I am still waiting for the others," she said.

Nyaduel, another mother who lost her 7-year old boy to the Murle, told Sudan Tribune that she had been praying day and night that her son should return back home safely.

“I pray that soon I will see my son. He is going to come back to me,” she told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the President [governor] of Gambella region in Ethiopia, Gatluak Tut Khot, has assured Gambella residents that their safety would be guaranteed by ensuring that such cross border attack will not repeat itself.

He said the first step was to rescue the rest of the children, adding that border security with South Sudan would afterwards be established by the two neighbouring countries.

"After we get our children and cattle back, we will seriously work on our border relationships. We must teach the Murle that there is a better way of life than cattle rustling and stealing children," said Gatluak, the Gambella regional president.

He said they were getting information that some of the abducted children were going to be sold to other communities inside South Sudan by their Murle abductors.

"We have established that these children would have been sold or exchanged for heads of cattle inside South Sudan. But we are not going to rest until we get them all back home," he said.

Some international media outlets including the BBC reported the latest figure of the abducted kids to have reached 149, from the initial reported number of 108 or 125. The youngest among the abducted children by the Murle is a 3-month old infant.

Officials from the United Nations children's agency and the Ethiopian government are jointly providing medical help, counseling and basic necessities for the children, their families and caretakers.

The rescued children have been accommodated in a guest house in Gambella town, the capital city of Gambella region, in order to undergo treatment from sicknesses, malnourishment and trauma.

"Whenever children undergo hard conditions like this - separated from their families especially violently, and they are staying with complete strangers for something like three or four weeks - they feel completely let down and some of these experiences last for a lifetime," said Mike Charley, UNICEF's child protection specialist in Ethiopia.

Last month, thousands of armed Murle fighters crossed into Ethiopia and simultaneously attacked 13 villages belonging to the Nuer community, killing at least 200 people and raiding over 2,000 heads of cattle.

Ethiopia responded by deploying troops into South Sudan's Buma state [Jonglei state], demanding release of all the abducted children and threatening to attack suspected targets if the Murle community could not cooperate.

The troops have not yet attacked any location, pending efforts to avail all the abducted kids.

(ST)

May 26, 2016 (JUBA) - The government of South Sudanese and the high command of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), will in coming days release a "true" report of the activities of the army in the states of Bahr el Ghazal region where it forces in the month of April were involved in civilian abuses, according to a United States-based rights group.

A SPLA soldier stands in front of a vehicle in Juba on December 20, 2013. (Photo Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

The army, Human Rights Watch said, committed human right abuses in the form of killings, rape, torture, burning down and looting of civilian properties, while hunting armed men loyal to politicians allied to the first vice president, Riek Machar in the region.

The army spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang told the United Nations-sponsored Radio Miraya Thursday that the report was the outcome of a "one sided" investigation and vowed government and the army command would soon release a true picture of the activities in which the government forces in the states of Bahr el Ghazal were involved.

"This is not a banana republic. We have a constitution and laws which are put in place to uphold and safeguard the rights and liberties of every citizen. The true picture is that we have not been dealing with the armed opposition. We have not been involved in attacking and looting properties of the civilians," said Koang, previously a rebel spokesperson.

He said the command of the army rejects the report because it is "biased, one sided and absolutely filed with lies and unfounded allegations from unauthorised respondents".

"We dealt with bandits. Our forces were dealing with people supporting acts of banditry. Our mandate is to maintain law and order, not to loot the civilian population”, added Koang.

He admitted that government forces in South Sudan's Western Bahr el Ghazal state exchanged fire when a column of soldiers on patrol were attacked by unknown groups.

But while the army spokesperson denies the authenticity of the human right reports, local officials and activists from Western Bahr el Ghazal and other areas in the region maintained in a series of interviews with Sudan Tribune on Wednesday and Thursday that all areas of Western Bahr el Ghazal have recorded and continues to remain poor in human right records, asserting numerous serious abuses were committed.

Sources confirmed the veracity of the human rights report that Unlawful killings, disappearances, torture, rape, and arbitrary arrest and detention by security forces increased in April, despite the return of the first vice president, Riek Machar, to whom many armed men in the region have pledged their allegiance.

Activists say harsh and life-threatening conditions in prison and detention facilities; prolonged pretrial detention; lack of an independent and effective judiciary; and arbitrary interference with privacy, family, and home also remained serious problems. Pro government militiamen continued to recruit and retain child soldiers and to compel forced labour by adults and children.

They also continued to abuse freedom of the press. The government continued to restrict freedoms of assembly and movement while corruption remained pervasive; and security forces restricted non-governmental entities. Societal discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, abduction of political dissidents, child labor, and lack of protection for workers' rights continued to be pervasive throughout the country.

Armed groups continued to commit numerous, serious abuses, some of which may constitute war crimes, including unlawful killings, disappearances, and torture. They also recruited and retained child soldiers, compelled forced labor, and committed serious sexual abuses and other possible war crimes.

(ST)

India's foreign ministry says it is looking into an alleged attack on a Nigerian student by a local man in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Experts following the MH370 search say it is likely a new piece of debris found by a BBC reader in Mozambique came from the missing plane.

At a meeting today in the United Nations Security Council on the situation in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, senior UN officials stressed that climate change plays a direct role in the region’s security, development and stability by increasing drought and fuelling conflict.

Kenya's parliament approves changes to anti-doping legislation in the hope of avoiding a ban on its athletes attending the Olympic Games in Rio.

And other ways Nigeria has changed under new president

Hundreds of people gather in Cairo for a candlelit vigil for the victims of last week's EgyptAir crash.

Up to 30 migrants are feared dead after a boat capsizes off the Libyan coast as the full horror of a similar shipwreck a day earlier emerges.

South Africa's parliament approves a bill allowing the government to expropriate land in the public interest.

Justice, accountability and the deterrent effects of the law remain “critical components” for achieving lasting peace in Libya, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the United Nations Security Council today, encouraging the country’s Government to give priority to devising effective plans and strategies to address atrocity crimes, and to invest in the relevant national institutions responsible for such work.