Day: August 19, 2021

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday proposed to mediate a brotherly solution to the border dispute between Sudan and Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in Ankara for a one-day working visit where he held talks with President Erdogan. Also, officials from the two countries signed a number of deals including military framework and military financial agreements.

Following the signing ceremony, the Turkish president pointed to the need for stability in Ethiopia and offered to mediate a solution for the Tigray conflict and the border tensions with Sudan.

He underscored that the continuation of the armed conflict in the northern part of Ethiopia will affect the whole region before adding that Turkey is ready to contribute to finding a solution to the crisis in Tigray.

Further, the Turkish leader mentioned the current tensions with Sudan over the Fashaga area saying that Ankara is also prepared to broker an amicable solution for the border dispute.

“I have already raised the issue with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of Sudan,” added Erdogan referring to the recent three-day visit of the head of the Transitional Sovereign Council Ankara.

Earlier this year, Ethiopia claimed ownership of the Fashaga border area and called for talks to demarcate the border between the two countries.

In return, Sudan rejected the claim and called to place border markers based on previous agreements reached in 1902, 1903 and 1975.

The United Arab Emirates sought to mediate between the two countries and proposed to establish agricultural projects in the area involving farmers from the two countries but Sudan stressed that Ethiopia has first to accept the implementation of the signed border demarcation first.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan’s Investment minister has denied reports of his alleged involvement in holding private discussions with the United Nations mission in Abyei (UNISFA) over the status the existence of their base in his area.

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Map showing the lcoation of the contested Abyei region in relation to Sudan and South Sudan

Minister Dhieu Mathok Diing Wol denied in a statement on Wednesday that he held private discussions with the leadership of the interim force for Abyei at which asked them to remain in the area despite public protest demanding the peacekeeping troops to pull out of the area with immediate effects.

“South Sudanese in general and Aweil communities in particular were well aware that I was in the frontline with the rest of compatriots, who came out in defense of 14 miles in 2012. I made my position clear before the African Union team of experts by presenting the circumstances behind the creation of 14 miles and why we think it was not a boundary”, Dhieu wrote in a statement obtained by Sudan Tribune.

He was reacting to a social media post accusing him of backtracking local demand protesting the continuous stay of the troops in the area.

Public demonstrations have been held in recent days in the counties of Aweil North and East whose areas were included in the map at the insistence of the Government of Sudan (GoS) during the talks facilitated by the African union high-level implementation Panel. Sudan feared an exclusion of the area in the Safe Demilitarize Buffer Zone amounts to a concession of the territory to South Sudan.

The latter asserts ownership of the area and pledge to provide access to grazing and water points to areas Sudanese nomads from Darfur and in Kordofan regions at the border with neighboring South Sudan.

The fear held by the Sudanese government at the talks led to designation of the area as a demilitarized zone, monitored by a Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM), to be composed of international observers from UNISFA and representatives of both countries. Within this area, ‘join tribal mechanisms’ are supposed to resolve disputes.

The area is mainly occupied by the Malual Dinka. The Rizeigat, one of the Sudanese nomads from Darfur annually accesses the area south of the Kiir River for grazing.

The local and national authorities say disputes over grazing in this area are not new. They stretch back to the 20th century. They cite clashes in 1918 which persuaded Patrick Munro, the British colonial governor of Darfur to create a new grazing boundary for the Rizeigat, some 40 miles south of the Kiir.

This decision sparked protest and vociferous complaints from the Malual Dinka, resulting in 1924 a compromise between Munro and Mervyn Wheatley, the governor of Bahr el Ghazal. The two British officials created a zone of Rizeigat grazing that extended to a line 14 miles south of the River Kiir. This line is known today as the Munro-Wheatley line, and the zone that it demarcates is referred to as the 14-Mile Are

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has appointed Peter Lam Both, a former state governor as acting Secretary General of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), ending tenuous lobbying amongst several party aspirants.

Both, the state-owned television (SSTV) announced on Wednesday, replaces Jemma Nunu Kumba who is the speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA).

The acting SPLM Secretary General had previously served as the deputy relief and rehabilitation commission at the national level and as a state minister of information in Upper Nile state before the country was split into 32 states in 2015 and 2016.

He later became the governor of Latjor state when more states were created through presidential establishment order.

Both contested for the seat with senior members of the party, notably the senior presidential adviser, Kuol Manyang Juuk, Eastern Equatoria state governor Louis Lobong Lajore and former Upper Nile state Governor Simon Kun Puoc. Kuol was depicted as a potential candidate for the position.

It is, however, not clear what transpired during lobbying in which Kiir decided to appoint a junior official at the expense of other high-ranking members in the structure.

Political analysts and commentators have been quick to attribute the cause to regional and ethnic balance in the hierarchical structure of the party.

Many believe the Secretary General of the ruling party should not go to an ethnic Dinka since the party’s chairman hails from Bahr el Ghazal and his deputy comes from Equatoria. The position of the Secretary General should then go to Upper Nile.

Source: Sudan Tribune