Day: October 29, 2021

One person died and four others sustained serious injuries after a building collapsed on them at Mayen-rual Market in Gogrial East County on Wednesday.

The county commissioner Ayom Bul told Radio Tamazuj on Thursday that the building was an old shop that collapsed during a heavy storm.

“At around 4:30 PM the old building fell on the people in Mayen-rual market and killed a person by name Bol Madut Madut, a 29-year old,” he said. “Four others had serious wounds especially one person from Tonj North, Abiem Mayar village who was terribly injured was taken to Pankot Health Centre while the rest remained at Luony Aker Primary Health Care Unit.”

According to the commissioner, the building that collapsed was old and built using local materials. He added that no other buildings were destroyed by the heavy rains.

Meanwhile, Joseph Manut, Pathuon West Payam Administrator, said the incident was unfortunate, saying the deceased was from the Police CID department.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Police authorities in Yei River County of South Sudan’s Central Equatoria State plan to introduce community policing to curb rising insecurity and protect the lives and property in the county.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, county police inspector Sabino Dominic Tobo said the move is aimed at reducing the crime rate within the county.

“Why we are forming the community policing is because they will be stationed in the residential areas to curb crimes since the civilians are also much involved in committing crimes in the community, coordinate with the head office and with that, after a year, Yei will be free from crimes and have peace,” he said.

Dominic says the chiefs have been tasked with creating the committees and strengthening relations between civilians and the police.

“We have alerted the chiefs because I met them in their areas so that they form the community policing committees so that they be available in the area and that we have a relationship with them,” he said. “Because we lack enough police, but to build a close relationship with the civilians in the areas there, will curb crimes because our committee in the area will do police work.”

The police officer said one of the main challenges facing the police is the lack of vehicles to facilitate their work across the county.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Following a military coup at dawn on Monday, a number of government officials and activists were detained. The following days, more people were held. On Thursday, the armed forces detained revolutionaries in other parts of the country. More than 60 Sudanese ambassadors and diplomats have publicly rejected the coup.

Activists reported from Nyala, capital of South Darfur, that 13 people were held in the city on Thursday, including two members of the Nyala Democratic Lawyers Alliance, the South Darfur government media director, and two members of the South Darfur Empowerment Removal Committee.

They said that a joint force of army and military intelligence officers and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces held them at night, and transferred them to the El Kabeer Prison.

In Ed Daein, capital of East Darfur, military troops detained the directors of the Ministries of Education, Health and Social Development, Finance, and Urban Planning on Thursday morning. Another force raided the civil laboratory in Ed Daein, yet found it empty.

In Nile River state in northern Sudan, a number of leaders of the Atbara Railway Union were held. Reports about detentions in South Kordofan reached Radio Dabanga as well, but no details were provided.

During the military coup on Monday, the civilian members of the Sovereignty Council, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, his wife, and a number of his ministers were detained in Khartoum.

On Monday evening, Ismail El Taj of the Sudanese Professionals Association and Siddig El Sadig El Mahdi, leading member of the National Umma Party, and were detained.

Sovereignty Council member Mohamed El Taayshi and members of his office were held on Tuesday, following statements he made against the coup. On Wednesday, Minister of Health Omar El Najeeb, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Yasir Abbas, and Advisor to the Prime Minister Hasan Nasrallah were detained following their return from Port Sudan.

Military forces are reported to have been going house to house in Khartoum detaining activists and protest organisers. The Sudanese Teachers Committee announced the detention of its president, Yasin Hasan Abdelkarim, on Tuesday.

The authorities also held journalists Fayez El Seleik and Sudan TV staff member Maher Abuljoukh.

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) yesterday published the names of 28 government officials and activists who were detained in the country on Monday. Eight others were held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

No support

PM Hamdok and his wife were returned home on Tuesday, where the military reportedly continued to pressurise him to announce his support for the coup. The Ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Transport, and Irrigation who wanted to visit PM Hamdok at his home, were not allowed to see him. In a statement on Thursday, the Ministers called on the military to immediately cancel “all unconstitutional measures” taken since the coup on Monday, and “release the political detainees immediately”.

Ministers linked with the Forces for Freedom and Change as well announced their “categorical rejection of the military coup” on Thursday.

More than 60 Sudanese ambassadors and diplomats also publicly rejected the military coup on Thursday, following an earlier statement by eight of their colleagues a day after the coup.

Ambassador Ali bin Abitalib, Sudan’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, said in a video recording that he does not recognise El Burhan’s decision to relieve him and his colleagues of their posts, and declared his adherence to the democratic transformation. He further denounced the “most heinous ways of abuse” the Sudanese are currently facing, and advised them to carry out “non-compliance and resistance in various legal ways”.

Lt Gen El Burhan announced the dismissal of seven more Sudanese ambassadors and the director of the Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday. He said that Ali El Sadig was appointed as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Graham Abdelgader as Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Civil disobedience actions and road blocks in protest against the military coup on October 25 continued for the fourth day yesterday. Reportedly 11 protesters were killed and 150 others were injured since Monday. Most of the bridges in Khartoum reopened. Flights to and from Khartoum International Airport were not resumed, while the internet in the country remained inaccessible. According to the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), two rebel leaders may be backing the coup.

Sources told Radio Dabanga from Khartoum that government institutions, schools and universities, as well as markets and many shops remained closed in the city.

Military forces continued to chase protesters in the neighbourhoods of the capital and remove barricades while the protesters re-closed the roads as soon as the forces had left. Demonstrations were dispersed with tear gas. In the evening, Khartoum witnessed a growing number of demonstrators in the neighbourhoods.

Almost all bridges linking Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman were re-opened yesterday. The White Nile Bridge, which links Omdurman with Khartoum, remained closed.

The authorities continued to close the internet services. Phone calls are reportedly possible but extremely difficult.

International airlines flying on Khartoum did not resume their flights, despite the announcement of the Civil Aviation Authority that flights were allowed again from Wednesday afternoon onward.

Victims

According to Nazim Saraj, activist and director of Hadreen Organisation, eight people were killed and 150 others were injured since the start of the demonstrations against the military coup on Monday.

Saraj said on his Facebook page on Wednesday that two protesters were “entirely paralysed” by bullets. A third one was being treated with bullets still in his chest. Seven others still needed surgical intervention.

The Resistance Committees in Khartoum North reported the death of a man and the injury of another when military forces opened fire on protesters in the El Shaabiya neighbourhood. Radio Dabanga was not able to confirm this news.

The Committees further said that Mohamed Abdelsalam, member of a Resistance Committee in Kober, died of his wounds sustained during a demonstration on Monday. A military force stormed the home of Abdelsalam in Kober yesterday, dispersed the mourners and chased a number of them in the streets.

The Sudan Doctors’ Central Committee reported yesterday evening that a man was shot dead and two others were seriously wounded when government forces fired live bullets at a group of demonstrators in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri) earlier that day.

Marches

Members of Resistance Committees active in the neighbourhoods of the Sudanese capital and other cities and towns in the country continued their calls for the October 30 Marches of the Millions against the military with marches and banners – defying the detention campaign of the armed forces against activists.

The External Action Committee of the Forces for Freedom and Change announced that 37 vigils in support of the government of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok will take place abroad, in conjunction with the planned marches in Sudan.

The military coup at dawn on Monday, October 25, may have come as a surprise to many, though tensions between the military and civilian components of the Sudanese government had risen to an all-time high in Sudan in the past weeks.

Following an aborted coup attempt on September 21, both parties exchanged accusations in the media. PM Abdallah Hamdok warned that Sudan was facing the “worst and most dangerous crisis” since the fall of the previous regime of Omar Al Bashir.

According to the Constitutional Document, signed by the Sudan Armed Forces and the Forces for Freedom and Change in August 2019, the military would pass the leadership of the Sovereignty Council to a civilian member in the coming month, as part of the country’s transition to democracy. “Tackling corruption and implementing security sector reform were other agenda items that worried the generals,” Sudan-watcher Alex de Waal commented on Wednesday.

In response to the military threats, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets and joined the Marches of the Millions on October 21, in support of the government of Hamdok and the democratic transition towards civilian rule.

October also witnessed another protest, in the form of a sit-in near the Republican Palace in Khartoum, that called for the replacement of the current government by a government of technocrats. The protest was supported by Minni Minawi, leader of a Sudan Liberation Movement breakaway faction and now Governor of Darfur, and Jibril Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who was appointed Minister of Finance following the October 2020 Juba Peace Agreement. Paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces were reportedly distributing water and food to the people at the sit-in.

The New York-based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) in a statement yesterday referred to the possible involvement of the rebel leaders in the coup. Allegedly there was deployment of the military from Darfur to Khartoum before the coup was carried out on Monday at dawn.

The ACJPS stated that Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) reportedly withdrew some of its forces from Darfur to Khartoum before 19 October, whilst the Sudan Liberation Movement faction under the leadership of Minni Minawi strengthened the presence of its forces in Khartoum on 24 October, a few hours before the coup.

Source: Radio Dabanga

As the military takeover in Sudan continues, so has the condemnation of it by the international community. The United Nations Security Council and the Friends of Sudan group each published a statement demanding the restoration of the civilian-led transitional government and the release of all detainees.

In the past days, politicians and organisations worldwide have condemned the coup that took place in Sudan on Monday at dawn when the military seized power, disbanded the transitional sovereignty council, and arrested civilian politicians.

More than 60 Sudanese ambassadors and diplomats have publicly rejected the coup.

Meanwhile, civil disobedience actions and roadblocks continued for the fourth day yesterday in protest of the military coup. Reportedly 11 protesters were killed and 150 others were injured since Monday.

Many activists, politicians, and leaders of civil society organisations have been detained.

UN Security Council

The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted and published a statement that called for the return of a civilian-led transitional government. The council expressed its “serious concern about the military takeover in Sudan”.

The UN Security Council had failed three times in the past few days to adopt a unified statement about the recent events in Sudan before the members decided on a compromised version yesterday.

French news media said that the final statement was decided on after hard negotiations and was eventually drafted by the UK and by Russia, which reportedly intervened to tone down the language used in the statement.

The UN council also called for “the immediate release of all those who have been detained by the military authorities” and stated that it “took note of the reported return of Prime Minister Hamdok to his residence”.

The statement further stressed the importance of human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

‘The members of the Security Council called upon Sudan’s military authorities to restore the civilian-led transitional government’

The statement read that “the members of the Security Council called upon Sudan’s military authorities to restore the civilian-led transitional government on the basis of the Constitutional Document and the Juba Peace Agreement, which underpin Sudan’s democratic transition”.

The members of the Security Council stressed that any attempt to undermine the democratic transition process in Sudan would put at risk the country’s security, stability, and development.

The council further reaffirmed its “strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity and national unity of Sudan”.

Friends of Sudan statement

The Friends of Sudan group* has also strongly condemned the ongoing military takeover of Sudan. The group called for the release of illegally detained officials and for the restoration of transitional arrangements and institutions as stipulated in the constitutional document.

Any attempts by the military to destabilise the civil-military partnership are unacceptable, the group said.

The group further stressed that the actions of the authorities undermine the political, economic, and legal gains made by Sudan and endanger its security, stability, and reintegration into the international community.

The Friends of Sudan also stated that the protests across the country underscored the people’s aspirations for democracy, human rights, peace, and prosperity.

* The Friends of Sudan group includes France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Nations.

Source: Radio Dabanga