♦ Sudan: This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact digest of this week’s most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan.

The first Ethiopians fleeing the war in Tigray arrive in El Gedaref on November 9 (Social media)

A compact digest of this week's most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this digest weekly in your inbox.


November 10 – 2020 KHARTOUM / EL GEDAREF Sudan has called on all warring parties in Ethiopia “to appeal to wisdom and restraint” to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Tigray Region. Yesterday evening, the first groups of people affected by the conflict reached El Gedaref. The group, belonging to Amhara tribes, consisted of four families and 30 members of the Ethiopian federal army with their weapons.

At a meeting yesterday at the Republican Palace, headed by Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, the Security and Defence Council expressed grave concerns about the possible consequences of the conflict in Ethiopia.

There have been reports of violent clashes between the conflicting parties from early yesterday morning and all through the evening.

In a press statement after the meeting, Minister of Defence Maj Gen Yasin Ibrahim said that Sudan will continue its efforts to support and call for negotiations between the different parties in Ethiopia. Ibrahim urged the international and regional community to take responsibility and carry out its duties towards the region to foster stability and increase the chance of peace in sister country Ethiopia.


Resistance Committees walk out of talks on parliament quotas
November 5 – 2020 KHARTOUM Resistance Committees in Khartoum met with the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) regarding the formation of the Legislative Council in Khartoum on last week, however the Resistance Committees subsequently withdrew from the meeting, citing disagreements with the agenda.

The meeting began with a briefing of FFC chairman and former president of the Sudanese Congress Party, Ibrahim El Sheikh, regarding the distribution of seats in parliament, as agreed in the Juba Peace Agreement between Khartoum and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance on October 3.

The two parties agreed that the Sudanese states will be restructured into regions that will be represented by 60 per cent in the parliament, distributed according to population density. 40 per cent of the 300 seats is to be allocated to women.

The signatories of the peace agreement will be represented in the Transitional Legislative Council by 25 per cent, which equates to 75 seats.


Sudanese author wins Institut du Monde Arabe award
November 10 – 2020 PARIS Baraka Sakin will receive the prize of €10,000 for his novel ‘El Jango, Stakes of the Earth’, that deals with the conditions in a women's prison. It was published in Arabic, and translated into French by Xavier Louvain.

Irrigation Minister: ‘Negotiation methodology reason for GERD talks failure’

November 9 – 2020 KHARTOUM Yasir Abbas said that the failure of Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia to agree on the negotiation methodology and the role of African Union experts led to the end of the last round of negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

PM congratulates USA President-Elect Joe Biden

November 8 – 2020 WASHINGTON DC / KHARTOUM PM Abdallah Hamdok congratulated Joe Biden on his election as US president, meanwhile USAID will allocate $20 million to Sudan for “basic strategic commodities” including wheat.
 

Rebel office raided by GIS in Khartoum

November 6 – 2020 KHARTOUM / DINDER Dozens of members of the Sudanese Forces for Change Alliance rebel group organised a protest vigil in Khartoum against what they described as government forces storming the movement’s office and detaining a number of leaders.

Government ‘needs new protocol’ for COVID-19 second wave

November 6 – 2020 KHARTOUM A hospital director has called on the government to develop a new protocol to deal with the pandemic during the country’s second wave of COVID-19 infections, meanwhile the university of Khartoum reported COVID-19 cases among its staff and students.
 

Nazirs ‘categorically reject’ three tracks in peace accord

November 5 – 2020 KHARTOUM Several political and civil society groups have expressed their categorical rejection of the accords on the eastern, northern, and central Sudan tracks included in the Juba Peace Agreement signed by Khartoum and the Sudan Revolutionary Front on October 3.
 

Sudan-South Sudan boundary to be defined

November 4 – 2020 JUBA The joint Sudan and South Sudan Boundary Demarcation Commission, tasked with defining the borders of five disputed areas, began a new round of negotiations in the South Sudanese capital Juba last week.

White Nile state protestors threaten to close Sudan-South Sudan border

November 4 – 2020 JODA / EL HAMRA Protestors in White Nile state threatened to close the Sudan-South Sudan border crossing point at Joda. The road blocks in El Hamra in eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref were removed on Monday.

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