Day: May 12, 2021

(KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government announced the arrest of the soldiers who opened fire on the demonstrators who took part in a peaceful rally on Tuesday.

The Sudanese Council of Ministers held an emergency meeting to discuss the murder of two demonstrators and the injury of other dozens during a peaceful commemoration of over 200 people killed outside the army headquarters in June 2019.

“The Minister of Defence confirmed that the armed forces have arrested all the army personnel accused of shooting at the peaceful demonstrators before to hand over the perpetrators of the crime to be brought to justice within a few days,” said the cabinet in a statement released after the meeting.

The use of fire against the demonstrators has been condemned by the political forces and western diplomats in Khartoum particularly the United States embassy and the European Union delegation in Sudan.

Also, the head of the UN political mission in Sudan UNITAMS condemned the attack against protesters and urged the Attorney General to “swiftly investigate” the violence to ensure that right to “peaceful protest must be protected”.

The extraordinary meeting further decided to summon the independent national committee tasked with the investigation of the bloody attacks that took place on 3 June 2019 at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers to “hold it accountable for its work and ask it to set a ceiling to end the investigation and present its findings”.

The head of the independent committee Nabil Adeeb, a lawyer known for his integrity, has come under fire from the martyr families and activists for taking more than a year without concluding the investigation.

Recently he stated that he needs to verify video footage released on social media or aired by some ban Arab TV channels.

He added he asked the prime minister to expand his mandate but is still waiting for an answer.

The rally to commemorate the deadly violence against protesters in 2019 by the elements of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the former National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) has shown Sudanese anger against the Hamdok government for its failure to achieve justice for the victims of the attacks.

Also, some political groups called to form a new committee.

Source: Sudan Tribune

(KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s attorney general on Wednesday urged the army to quickly hand over those who killed two protesters and wounded 37 others, the official news agency SUNA said on Tuesday.

The victims participated in a peaceful rally on Tuesday to commemorate the bloody attack on a sit-in outside the army headquarters where over two hundreds civilians had been killed in June 2019.

Al-Hebir Taj Elsir confirmed that the Public Prosecution Office had opened two lawsuits against the military involved in the killing of the two youth, Osman Ahmed Badr al-Din and Muddather al-Mukhtar Elshafie, under articles 130 and 186 of the criminal code related to premeditated murder, and crimes against humanity.

Taj-Elsir added they also filled an official request to the army to hand over the officer who ordered to open fire and soldiers who shot protesters and give their weapons to the Public Prosecution.

“We hope that there will be cooperation in handing over the accused and the weapons to investigate the case and the start of the trial,” he stressed.

The attorney general further said that all indications show that the rally was a peaceful gathering without violence and there were only very slight frictions when the protesters arrived in the vicinity of the army headquarters.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) did not react officially to the request of the general attorney.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, SAF stated it has formed an investigation committee to identify the perpetrators of the shooting.

“The Armed Forces confirm their full cooperation with the judicial and legal authorities to establish the truth and are fully prepared to bring to justice everyone involved in these events,” further added the statement.

Al-Burhan calls for national unity

In a speech on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday evening, the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan did not speak about the murder of the two youth by the military on Tuesday.

However, he denounced the language of “exclusion, treason and false accusations” by some parties.

“Such matters are a serious threat to the march of the revolution and a first hindrance to the requirements of the transition,” he added.

“The awareness revolution the youth has carried its torch requires to not allow those lurking in the dark seeking to ambush the revolution. Instead, we should strive to unify the national ranks,” he further stressed.

Some Sudanese officials say that the attacks were carried out by some members of the disbanded Operation Units that were part of the National Intelligence and Security Services and integrated into the army.

The Sudanese generals admit that these Islamists elements are hostile to the democratic change but add it would take time before to remove them out of the armed forces.

Source: Sudan Tribune

(KHARTOUM) – The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced today “The clearance of Sudan’s arrears was made possible with the support of the United Kingdom government through bridge financing of GBP148 million to clear Sudan’s arrears to the African Development Fund. Sweden provided grant financing of about $4.2 million to meet Sudan’s burden-share for the operation. The Republic of Ireland has also committed to providing EUR150,000 towards Sudan’s future debt service,” AfDB said in a statement today.

AfDB said that following the completion of this process it immediately moved to lift sanctions on Sudan and will now re-engage with Khartoum.

The UK foreign minister Dominic Raab said that the bridge loan they provided “unlocks important additional programming to help Sudan’s development and is another step towards Sudan’s economic recovery and transition to democracy”.

Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Per Olsson Fridh said that his government “is a strong supporter of Sudan’s democratic transition and reintegration into the global economy”.

AfDB statement noted that its current portfolio in Sudan “comprises 19 operations for a total commitment of about $600 million, spreading across sectors like agriculture, water and sanitation, social and energy and the private sector”.

Sudan needs to clear its debt arrears with international financial institutions in order to qualify for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

Last March, the United States provided a $1.15 billion bridge loan to clear Sudan’s arrears with the World Bank.

France also announced last month that it intends to provide a $1.5 billion bridge loan to clear Sudan’s arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Last week the Sudanese finance minister Gibril Ibrahim announced that his country completed second IMF Staff Monitored Program (SMP) review.

“This paves the way for Sudan to reach HIPC Decision Point which will hopefully result in substantial debt relief for Sudan as well as new credit lines,” he tweeted.

Sudan will seek to convince international creditors at a conference in Paris next week to cancel as much as it can from $50 billion in debt, mostly with bilateral creditors.

France is hosting the conference to promote investment and debt relief for Sudan.

UK finance minister Rishi Sunak met with IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva today and tweeted that he discussed “the milestone agreement on a plan for Sudan’s IMF debt relief promoted by the UK’s G7 Presidency, paving the way to an inclusive global recovery”.

This week the IMF executive board said it hqs approved a financing package for Sudan which would enable it to clear IMF arrears.

Source: Sudan Tribune