November 9, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - A new batch of Sudanese ground troops arrived in Yemen's port city Aden Monday to participate in the Saudi-led campaign against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi militants, said sources.
Military sources in Aden told several Yemeni media outlets that a Sudanese force consisting of 400 officers and soldiers has arrived Monday morning at Al-Zait seaport in Al-Braiga.
The Sudanese army has not commented on the reports.
Since mid-October, around 850 Sudanese soldiers had arrived in Aden to join the coalition. Also, Sudanese officials including president Omer al-Bashir and the defence minister Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Ouf have expressed readiness to send 6,000 troops to Yemen.
The spokesperson for the Sudanese army Ahmed Khalifa al-Shami has earlier said the arrival of the vanguard ground troops in Aden comes within the framework of Sudan's participation in the “Operation Restoring Hope” carried out by the Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen.
He pointed out the deployment of the Sudanese troops in Yemen is the responsibility of the coalition command, saying the troops receive direct orders from the command and ready to carry out any tasks entrusted to it.
At a time when Saudi Arabia's strongest allies including Egypt and Pakistan have declined requests by Riyadh to send ground troops to Yemen, Khartoum has recently shifted its alliances in response to growing economic pressures at home.
Late last year, Sudanese authorities ordered the closure of the Iranian Cultural Centre in the capital Khartoum and other states and asked the Iranian cultural attaché to leave the country in a move seen as a gesture of goodwill towards the Arab Gulf states.
(ST)
November 9, 2015 (BOR) - A three months vacination campaign targeting an estimated 8,000 heads of cattle is underway in Twic East county of South Sudan's Jonglei state.
Veterinaries Sans Frontiers (VSF) Germany and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation( FAO) are conducting the initiative on animals and small ruminants in a region where majority of the rural population depend on livestock rearing activities.
The Twic East county commissioner, Dau Akoi said the three month project will enhance food security, reduce and eradicate the common diseases among animals in his county.
“We are targeting 8,000 heads of cattle, goats and sheep all together. The program would run for three months or more. This is because we want to improve level of food security in this place by ensuring proper care for the animals in the area”, Akoi explained.
A number of community health animal workers were trained on how to administer the vaccines, identify the symptoms of sickness in the animals and give the right treatment.
VSF will, as part of the program, vaccinate up to 2,000 animals while FAO will assist 6,000 animals within the period of three months or more according to the commissioner.
These year, however, no cases of Hemorrhagic Septicemia and East Coarse Fever were reported among animals. The vaccination is being administered free of charge.
“It is free of charge, no one would be expected to pay for anything. But if the community show their commitments to host the vaccinators, give them meals in areas where they will not be able to get food, since work would be intensive. That would be great”, said Dau.
(ST).
November 9, 2015 (JUBA)- South Sudanese internally displaced persons who are facing the ongoing conflict and living in the worst conditions are pleading humanitarian assistances amid looming hunger in the country.
The UN HCR said in its latest assessment of 31 October that there are 1.66 million of IDPs in the young nation. Also UN Word Food Programme (WFP) on 22 October pointed to the looming hunger saying that 3.9 million people now face severe food insecurity and tens of thousands on brink of famine.
“We have been suffering and suffering”, said Mary Nyadak in Juba, a mother of nine children who lost her husband during the raging conflict. And to make matters worse, her home was burnt down during fighting
“This is the first time I am seeing sorghum in four months,” she told a visiting team of the WFP as she clutched a yellow card issued by the largest humanitarian agency in the world.
The card enables her family to receive food assistance in the form of a household cereal staple called sorghum. Given the pangs of hunger she has experienced in the last few months, she can't afford to lose the card.
WFP has been providing lifesaving food in South Sudan to hundreds of thousands of families who were forced to flee their homes. But as 40% of the population faces life-threatening levels of hunger, it appeals assistances from governments and donor communities to reach more.
"Don't forget South Sudan: Make an emergency donation now," the online appeal by the UNWFP notes in part. "Your gift will be immediately put to work to ensure that families who have already lost everything don't also go hungry. For example, a donation of $75 will provide nutritious food to a family like Rhoda's for an entire month — making a tremendous impact”, it added.
To promote self-sufficiency and increase local agricultural production the WFP is also constructing 13 road in seven states. The purpose of the 530 kilometres roads is to improve farmers access to local markets.
(ST)
November 9, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Salih has asked a visiting US Congress delegation to lift the economic sanctions imposed on Sudan in order to enable it carry out political and economic reforms.
A delegation of members of US Congress has conducted a private visit to Khartoum from 7th to 9th November. The visit was organized by two US-based think-tanks under the sponsorship of a Sudanese trading company.
Salih on Monday briefed the visiting delegation on the political situation in the country besides the Sudanese/US relations since the current regime assumed power in 1989, demanding the US to lift the economic and trade sanctions and remove Sudan's name from the list of states sponsors of terrorism.
“Despite all obstacles set by Washington, the Sudanese government has kept the doors open for dialogue in order to restore normal ties between the two nations,” he said.
Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 in response to its alleged connection to terror networks and human rights abuses. In 2007 it strengthened the embargo, citing abuses in Darfur which it labelled as genocide.
Also, Sudan has been on the US list of countries supporting terrorism since 1993, for allegedly providing support and safe haven for terrorist groups.
Salih stressed that Sudan seeks to maintain balanced relations with the international community on the bases of the common interests.
He briefed the Congress delegation on the government efforts to achieve economic and political reforms, expressing hope that the US supports those efforts by lifting the sanctions imposed on Sudan.
For his part, the head of the US Congress delegation Bennie Thompson expressed appreciation for Salih, noting the delegation, which is composed of four members of the US House of Representatives, sought to get acquainted with the situation in the Sudan.
He told the official news agency (SUNA) that the members of the delegation would convey what they have seen on the ground in Sudan to their colleagues in the US Congress, noting the meeting with Salih dealt with Sudan's history since independence besides the challenges facing the country including the US sanctions.
“We urged Lieut. Gen. Bakri to talk to businessmen,” he added.
It should be mentioned that the US Congress delegation held several meetings with government officials, parliamentarians, businessmen and civil society leaders to assess the political situation and the impact of the US sanctions.
The members of the US Congress delegation refrained from speaking in the press conference held at the conclusion of their visit to Sudan on Monday allowing the sponsors to brief the reporters on the outcome of the visit.
MEETING PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER
Meanwhile, the US Congress delegation on Monday discussed with the speaker of the National Assembly Ibrahim Ahmed Omer the recent political developments and bilateral relations.
Omer told reporters following the meeting that the Sudanese/US relations were the main issue of discussion with the visiting delegation, noting he briefed them on the strategic location of Sudan and the importance of achieving peace, stability and development.
He noted the members of the delegation said they are mainly interested in collecting the required facts and information in order to convey them to the concerned bodies, denying they requested the US Congress to change its stance toward Sudan.
“What we heard from them is considered reasonable but we can't say that we reached any conclusions because they are very careful not to speak or express any position,” he said.
Omer further hoped that the US deals with Sudan differently, saying Washington doesn't deal with his country from a strategic position but derives its policies from a predetermined and distorted ideological image.
(ST)
(B2) Cent militaires supplémentaires de la 6e Brigade de chasseurs (Jägerbrigade) ont été mis en alerte pour faire face à la situation des réfugiés dans le Tyrol. 1650 soldats sont déjà déployés dans tout le pays en appui de la police, pour des missions d’assistance aux réfugiés et de sécurité, précise-t-on à Vienne. Ce qui témoigne de la gravité de la situation.
Speeches by Donald TUSK, President of the European Council.
Good evening and welcome to the Eurogroup press conference.
First of all we discussed the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) and specifically the setting up of the Single Resolution Board (SRB). Ms Elke König was with us and informed us on all the preparations they are doing to have the SRB up and running on the 1 January 2016. A lot of work has to be done - the organisation has to be put up, rules and regulations have to be designed etc., so we were very impressed by the work she has done so far and hope to welcome her in the Eurogroup on a more regular basis. There were two issues that she draw to our attention:
1. Setting up of the national credit lines. That will also be on the agenda of tomorrows Economic and Financial Affairs Council;
2. Timely ratification of the Intergovernmental Agreement and transposition of the BRRD by all the Member States.
I am happy to inform you that the Dutch Senate will vote on the last part of legislation tomorrow (10 November 2015) so knock on wood. Then we will have our work done, and all that in preparation for 1 January 2016, of course.
The second issue on our agenda was Greece. We were informed by the Commission, the ECB and the IMF on the state of play, and by the ESM. A lot of progress and work has been done in terms of programme implementation, further development and it has been a very cooperative process. This has been emphasised by all sides. So that was very good news.
We've also taken stock of the ongoing recapitalisation exercise with Greek banks. There too a lot of work has been done and the size of the recapitalisation is smaller than expected earlier, and actually the speed of the process is also going quite smoothly so far. The next thing to do is to have all the financial sector measures in place before the completion of the recapitalisation process. Our Greek colleague Efkleidis Tsakalotos gave his commitment to get that done. There are open issues which you may have heard about which have to do with nonperforming loans, and more specifically household insolvency. So more work needs to be done to get an agreement also on those issues. Implementation needs to be finished over the course of the coming week. All of that is necessary to finalise the process of the recapitalisation. As you remember €10 billion has already been put in a segregated account in the ESM, which is ready if needed and when needed for the recapitalisation process, but of course the agreed conditions need to be met.
So there are two key issues - one is about the governance of the banks, and the other key issue still to be resolved is about household insolvency. So those conditions are to be met in the coming days. We have mandated the Euro Working Group to reconvene at the latest at the beginning of the next week to take stock of the compliance report from the institutions. Hopefully the whole first set will be implemented, but also some of the key issues regarding the governance of the banks will be put in place. And then at the beginning of the next week the EWG can assess that and come to a positive conclusion, which will then be followed by an ESM Board of Governance meeting because they in the end have to take the decisions to make available the €10 billion, or less if less is needed at that point. So that's the process that we've outlined for the coming days and we are all committed to get that done in time.
Let me quickly mention a couple of other issues on our agenda. We were informed, on the basis of the autumn forecast, of the ongoing economic recovery in the euro area. The recovery will continue despite some global economic issues which we are all aware off. There was great consensus that at the same time we need to use this period and the benign circumstances to push forward structural reforms to get higher potential growth in the euro area.
On the future of the monetary union, we had an initial exchange of views on the follow-up to the 5 Presidents' report. In October the Commission presented its first proposals on economic governance and today we had a first round of debate on that, and specifically on external representation. Not much I can say about that. It was a first round, and on some other issues like the Fiscal Board and the Competitiveness Authorities. The debate on those governance issues will be on the Ecofin agenda tomorrow, so we'll pick up on that from there.
These were the main highlights from me.