Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported “a substantial increase” in the weekly total of new Ebola cases in Guinea and Sierra Leone and deployed a response team to the border with Guinea-Bissau because of its proximity to a recent cluster of cases in a neighbouring Guinean prefecture.

May 20, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The controller-general of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Gawish, has vehemently attacked the stance of the government towards the death sentence issued by an Egyptian court against ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi sits in a defendant cage in the Police Academy courthouse in Cairo, on 8 May 2014 (Photo AP/Tarek el-Gabbas)

On Saturday, a court in Cairo sentenced to death Morsi and 105 co-defendants for allegedly taking part in a mass jailbreak during Egypt's January 2011 uprising that ousted then president Hosni Mubarak.

Sudan's foreign ministry spokesperson, Ali al-Sadig, said in press statements on Monday that “ongoing trials in Egypt are an internal matter and the [Sudanese] government does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries”.

Gawish, who spoke in a press conference in Khartoum on Wednesday, described statements of the Sudanese foreign ministry as “weak and confounded”, saying the spokesperson was unable to use suitable words to disguise his fear.

He expressed astonishment at the diplomatic talk that Sudan does not interfere in other countries' affairs, wondering why the foreign ministry did not describe Sudan's political and military participation in the “Decisive Storm” campaign against Yemen as interference in the latter's internal matters.

“Why they [Sudanese government] gave themselves the right to support General Khalifa Haftar in Libya while at the same time they consider the ongoing events in Egypt who is much closer to us an internal affair?” he exclaimed.

The controller-general said the regime in Sudan was part of the Muslim Brotherhood, pointing that several government officials are still proud of that fact.

He listed evidences for previous roles played by Sudan and Sudanese leaders in the Arab and Islamic worlds, lamenting the current situation in the country which reached the extent that the government considers what is going on in Egypt an internal matter.

“The fire which burns Egypt would soon reach Sudan and if the [government] is unable to take a clear stance towards issues, its rhetoric should be more prudent and not in this shameful manner,” he said.

Gawish also criticized the leader of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP), al-Sadig al-Mahdi, saying he is not qualified to advice the Egyptian president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi because he lives as a refugee in his country.

“Sadig's letter to [al-Sisi] in this regard was inappropriate because he is a refugee in Egypt and his letter was worthless. Although he initially justified measures taken by al-Sissi against the Muslim Brotherhood, he returned to advice him using weak language,” he added.

Earlier this week, al-Mahdi wrote an open letter to al-Sisi in which he criticized the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood before he asked him to grant the convicts from the group a general pardon.

The secretary general of the Islamic Constitution Front (ICF), Naser al-Sayed, for his part said that Egypt is facing a Zionist plot which seeks to extinguish the flame of the awakening which has emerged across the Muslim world.

“Egypt is the navel of the Arab and Muslim world and thus they seek to destroy it along with the Muslim Brotherhood which is considered the oldest and strongest and Islamic movement in the world,” he said

He added the Muslim Brotherhood was targeted because it is the only party capable of mobilizing Muslim peoples to counter the worldwide attack on Islam.

The ICF called on Sudanese peoples to take to the streets following Friday prayers to protest against the death sentences handed down to dozens of the Muslim Brotherhood members in Egypt.

In 2013, Khartoum sought to strike a neutral tone following the move by the Egyptian army to overthrow Morsi after unprecedented multi-million strong demonstrations against him before it returned and described it as an "internal affair" that concerns Egypt's people, national institutions and political leadership.

Morsi is the first president to be referred to the mufti in Egypt's history. The opinion of the mufti is not binding to the court, but Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on any death sentence.

The court decision against Morsi and his aides drew condemnation from US, Turkey, Germany and the European Union (EU) with the rights group Amnesty International describing it as “nothing but a charade based on null and void procedure”.

(ST)

May 20, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – South Sudan's armed opposition faction led by former vice president, Riek Machar, said their forces have tactically withdrawn from the oil-rich Melut town which they captured on Tuesday from president Salva Kiir's government.

South Sudanese soldiers stand during President Salva Kiir's visit to an oil refinery in Melut, Upper Nile State, South Sudan on November 20, 2012 (Getty Images)

Melut town which the rebel forces controlled for the last 48 hours is the biggest town near the country's main oilfields of Paloch and the headquarters of Melut county in Upper Nile state.

Rebel leader's spokesman said the opposition forces on Wednesday afternoon made a tactical withdrawal to a few kilometres in the outskirts of the town, adding that they would move back to the town centre any time soon.

“Our forces have tactically withdrawn to a few kilometres outside Melut town in order to reorganize for next move,” Machar's spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said in a press statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

He said the rebel forces have also remained in full control of the country's Thiangrial refinery site in the area, which they captured from the government forces on Tuesday.

He said the temporary withdrawal from town centre was meant to reorganize various forces and for careful planning to dislodge government forces from Paloch oilfields in a way that should avoid damage to oil facilities.

“Paloch oilfields have remained besieged and our forces are waiting for next order to move in. We intend to avoid a takeover that may damage oil facilities,” he said.

When contacted on Wednesday he told Sudan Tribune that ground assault on the main oilfields had not yet taken place, adding this would take place “anytime soon.”

He also accused government forces of preventing some of the oil workers to leave the oilfields, saying they were holding them hostage as human shield. The rebel leader's spokesman said Juba will be held responsible for the lives of the detained oil workers.

ANOTHER GUNSHIP SHOT DOWN

Dak said the rebel forces also gunned down another helicopter gunship on Wednesday, saying it fell in Melut town and could easily be verified independently.

“SPLM/SPLA is hereby announcing that its forces have shot down another helicopter gunship on Wednesday in Melut town, South Sudan,” Dak said.

“The gunship was carrying out air raid on positions of our forces near Paloch oilfields and inside Melut town when it met its fate. It fell inside Melut town and can be easily independently verified,” he added.

Last week the rebel group claimed that it downed a gunship over Upper Nile state's capital, Malakal and fell in the bushes. They said the gunship belonged to Uganda air force, a claim denied by the Ugandan military spokesman, Paddy Arkunda.

The statement on the latest shooting down of the second helicopter did not however said the identity of the aircraft.

(ST)

The United Nations mission in Mali strongly condemned today an attack against a residential compound housing its military personnel in the country capital of Bamako, a spokesperson for the Organization confirmed today.

The United Nations has strongly condemned the escalation of hostilities in the past ten days between Government and opposition forces in Unity and Upper Nile States in South Sudan.

While it is too soon to celebrate definitive success in Somalia, and while the situation remains challenging, progress is being made and the international community would be missing a strategic opportunity if it failed to realize how much is being achieved, the top United Nations in the country told the Security Council today.

Almost two years since the eruption of the conflict in South Sudan, the situation continues to deteriorate with women and small children making up the majority of most recent casualties, a representative from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the country said today.

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