♦ Sudan: This week’s news in brief ♦

09/12/2020 06:15 DABANGA SUDAN

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

Sudan Armed Forces (file photo)

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

Sudan’s army regains control of border region after 25 years

December 3 – 2020 EL FASHAGA The Sudan Armed Forces reportedly took control of the area of Khor Yabis in eastern El Gedaref on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia last week.

The Radi El Fashaga Committee said in a statement that the army recovered Khor Yabis in El Fashaga El Sughra, off Barakat Norein, after 25 years of absence. The committee expressed its hope for the deployment of the armed forces in the entire El Fashaga locality and “the restoration of Sudanese sovereignty”.

A military source from El Fashaga confirmed the deployment of the armed forces in half of the area that was formerly occupied by Ethiopian gunmen (shifta). The shifta regularly conduct violent cross-border raids to steal crops and livestock, or kidnap people for ransom.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has asked the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, for technical and programmatic assistance to deal with the influx of Ethiopian refugees. He and the commissioner agreed to organise an international conference on refugee issues to be hosted by Khartoum at the beginning of next year.

 

El Burhan responds to criticism of Transitional Partners Council
December 8 – 2020 KHARTOUM The chairman of the Sovereign Council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, has stressed the importance of examining the structure and the arrangement of tasks of the Transitional Partners Council (TPC) in a press statement. The statement was made in response to widespread opposition against his plans to establish the TPC.

He explained that the military component of the Sovereign Council respects and remains committed to the Constitutional Document signed by Sudan’s military and the Forces for Freedom and Change in August last year. He also explained that the military will work with full force to serve the stability of the transition within any formation.

The Revolution Protection Group, chaired by Mahjoub Saleh, described the formation of the TPC as “a conspiracy to hijack the December revolution”, and considered it “to consecrate the spirit of differences, weaken the revolutionary power and the government, and bring about a radical change in the structures of the transitional government”.

UNAMID reports human rights violations in Darfur
December 9 – 2020 DARFUR The joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) mission reported 47 cases of human rights violations and the displacement of more than 50,000 people in Darfur between September 1 and November 23 of this year. This was documented in a UNAMID report submitted to the UN Security Council earlier this month.

December 8 – 2020 GENEVA / EL GEDAREF Last Wednesday, the UNHCR announced that part of its donor money will go to the protection of Ethiopian refugees fleeing to Sudan. The number of Ethiopian refugees fleeing the war in Tigray to eastern Sudan rose to 49,827 on Monday, said the Director of the Refugee Housing Projects Department in El Gedaref, Abdelhafeez Mohamed.

Intelligence service raids seminar, detains 17 SPLM-N members

December 7 – 2020 GUMBURIYA The General Intelligence Service in El Abbasiya in South Kordofan has been holding 17 members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu) in their offices since Friday, when they were removed from a seminar about the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement.
 

UNHCR Darfur office head: 'Conditions have improved'

December 6 – 2020 IRIBA / PARIS The head of the Darfur office of the UNHCR said that conditions have improved since the fall of Omar Al Bashir, the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement, and improvement in security policies, meanwhile France has announced €1 million to support Sudan following a significant influx of refugees into the country from Ethiopia.
 

Bloomberg 50: PM Hamdok named as influential figure

December 5 – 2020 NEW YORK Bloomberg has prepared a list of the 50 most influential figures around the world, among them the Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who introduced a set of political, economic, and social reforms that it considers "the boldest in the entire Islamic world in a century."

Government ‘must ratify’ UN Convention against enforced disappearances

December 4 – 2020 KHARTOUM More than 20 national and international civil society organisations called on the transitional government to expedite the ratification of the UN Convention against Torture and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Sudan strengthens diplomatic ties in various meetings

December 2 – 2020 KHARTOUM / EL FASHER Yesterday, officials had various meetings concerning the country’s position including a phone call between El Burhan and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a meeting between Hamdok and USA aircraft manufacturer Boeing in Khartoum, and a meeting between the Governor of North Darfur and a UNAMID delegation.

West Darfur governor urges justice for atrocities

December 2 – 2020 KHARTOUM West Darfur governor Mohamed El Doma urged the Attorney General to prosecute atrocities committed in the past, describing the situation during his address to a virtual DBA conference on transitional justice as “dangerous”, as key witnesses and investigators are dying or suffering from dementia.
 

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