Day: August 30, 2021

Sudan and Chad Sunday discussed ways to increase joint cooperation to address the security challenges facing the two counties particularly the armed groups in Libya.

Mohamat Idriss Deby Chairman of the Transitional Military Council (CMT) in Chad arrived in Khartoum on a two-day visit. He met with the Head of the Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

Also, Deby held a closed-door meeting with al-Burhan, followed by another meeting involving the Sudanese defence and interior ministers and the directors of general and military intelligence agencies.

The Chadian delegation included the foreign minister, minister of public security, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, director of the security agency and AbdelKerim Idriss Deby, Deputy Director of the President’s Civil Office.

In a statement released on Sunday evening, the Chadian presidency said that the interim Chadian leader called to deepen the security cooperation based on the signed bilateral and regional agreements.

Deby called for “reciprocal solidarity” between the two countries to face security challenges posed by “the presence in southern Libya of the hordes of mercenaries that might carry out new attacks such as Chad has already experienced,” said the presidency.

The statement further stressed that these mercenaries who are “recruited, trained, supervised, armed and financed by foreign powers (…) must not be allowed to leave Libya because they pose a serious threat to the stability and security of both Chad and Sudan”.

It was purported that the Russian Wanger militia group trained the Chadian rebel groups in Libya who sought to take power in Chad last April.

The Libyan warring parties hired rebel groups from Chad and Sudan to fight along with their forces. The civil war in the northern African country provided them with an opportunity to survive and rebuild their structures.

The Sudanese presidency said al-Burhan recalled the “great joint security operations” and called to develop it.

He further called on extend this cooperation to the economic sector and supporting social coexistence before underscoring that “there are many cooperation agreements between the two countries that must be activated for the benefit of the people.”

When the rebels carried out their attack, Sudan deployed troops on the border areas to prevent them from controlling areas in far eastern Chad near Sudan. The attackers were forced to return to southern Libya.

Musa al-Koni Vice-President of the Libyan Presidential Council visited this week Khartoum and Ndjamena where he agreed with the Sudanese and Chadian leaders to activate a joint security agreement involving Niger.

In his meeting with Hamdok, Deby discussed economic cooperation between the two countries.

Also, the Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi discussed with her Chadian counterpart bilateral relations and the need to include neighbouring countries in the international meetings to bring stability in Libya.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudanese authorities have temporarily blocked access to social media services across the country as part of security measures to abort calls for protests for peaceful regime change in the country scheduled for August 30, 2021.

Leaders of the civil society groups organizing for the mass protest say the plan has not changed but have decided to carry out more consultations with some top security officers, army generals and police services to provide protection to protesters and to ensure people with different agendas and interests do not take advantage to destroy properties and cause havoc and harms.

“The plan has not changed. It is still on course. People will go out, but we have just told them to wait for guidance from the central committee”, a leading activist told the Sudan Tribune on Monday.

Online services have experienced restriction on Saturday after the government ordered telecom companies to block access to social media platforms as a part of measures to curtail mass mobilization for protests through social media platforms.

Nonetheless, activists continued to reach the social media platforms via Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

Activists say the blockage of social media services, shut down of a radio station in Jonglei and arrest of a bishop in Yei County in Central Equatoria motivate their mobilization to protest for freedoms.

A police spokesman has denied any link between the arrest of a bishop, the closure of a radio station in Jonglei and calls for general protests in the country.

On Sunday, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth warned the public from taking part in the planned “illegal” protests on Monday.

Makuei further urged South Sudanese to support the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement and the government efforts to move the country forward.

The official Government spokesperson, also, directed the civil service personnel and the public at large to resume their normal duties as usual.

The leaders of the civil rights activists are asking people to take to the street and protest the inability of the government to curb corruption, stop recurring communal fights, and ensuring freedom of expression.

Continued intimidation and arrest of activists, journalists, and political opponents are clear and obvious lack of political will to enforce the key provisions of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, they say.

Source: Sudan Tribune