Day: November 12, 2021

Ambassadors of the European Union in Sudan met with Foreign Affairs Minister Maryam El Sadig on Thursday. They reiterated their support to the government of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok. The minister called for more pressure on the putschists to hand power to a civilian government, and for more support to confront the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Mohamed Naji El Asam, one of the leaders of the December Revolution, was detained on Thursday.

The delegation of EU envoys “discussed the current crisis” and reiterated their support “for the return to the constitutional order, the need for immediate release of detainees and protection of the right to peaceful demonstrations”.

The FA Minister appealed to the international community to put pressure on the leaders of the coup in order to release all political detainees, headed by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, and to restore the Internet.

She also called for urgent support to confront the COVID-19, which is spreading in Sudan these days, and said that the pandemic was exacerbated by the military coup.

The UN Security Council on Thursday held a closed consultation session, the second of its kind in the past two weeks, on developments in Sudan, at the request of the USA, UK, Norway, France, Ireland, and Estonia.

On Thursday morning, Medical Doctor Mohamed Naji El Asam, a leading member of the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, and former spokesperson for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the driving force behind the December Revolution that led to the ouster of President Omar Al Bashir, was held in Khartoum and taken to an unknown location.

Source: Radio Dabanga

ZCZC

Yesterday evening, people in various neighbourhoods in Khartoum took to the streets to protest against the reinstated Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) and call for a civilian government, chaired by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok. The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) strongly condemned the move.

On Thursday, Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and leader of the military junta that seized power in Sudan in a coup d’état on October 25, made known that the Sovereignty Council will be reinstated under his chairmanship, with the same military members and rebel leaders as before but with a new set (with one exception) of civilian members.

In response, the Central Leadership Council of the FFC, that cooperated with the military in establishing the government of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in 2019, and again in February this year, issued a statement condemming the announcement of the coup leader.

“This afternoon, Thursday, November 11, the commander of the military coup in the country announced the members of the coup regime’s Sovereignty Council in a way that clearly confirms its indifference to the pulse of the street and the forces of life, and its continuation of unilateral measures in the same way as the former regime [of ousted President Omar Al Bashir],” the statement reads.

“The Council announced today does not represent a Sovereignty Council, but rather a mixed coup council. [..] We affirm that the attempts of harassment, violence, and arbitrary arrests will not stop our [protest] marches. The revolution has begun anew to liberate the country from all putschists, and the streets will not betray us.”

Khartoum witnessed various street protests immediately after the announcement and later that day, as various tweets reported in defiance of the persisting general Internet blackout.

According to a number of tweets, people in Kalakla, Ed Deim, Burri, El Taif, El Riyadh took to the streets and sang slogans such as “Burhan malu ayan?, Aaradu shinu? Aafa wa bayan, Alaju shinu? Kober yaman” [What’s wrong with Burhan, is he sick? What are the symptoms? Exemptions and statements, And his treatment? Kober Prison].

Source: Radio Dabanga

An unknown number of residents of the Naivasha camp for the displaced near Shangil Tobaya in Tawila, North Darfur, were killed and injured in attacks by militant herders on Thursday evening. During protests against the recent resurgence of violence in the area, a man and a child were shot dead. In neighbouring Dar El Salam locality, gunmen burned hundreds of houses.

Listeners told Radio Dabanga from Shangil Tobaya that hundreds of people took to the streets in the town on Thursday, to protest against the killing of two displaced farmers by militant herders the day before.

The angry demonstrators took set fire to the Shangil Tobaya police station and barricaded the weekly market. Military forces shot at the demonstrators, killing two people, one of them a minor.

On the same day, a herder was found killed near the Naivasha camp.

In the evening, “a large number of gunmen riding on camels launched a violent retaliatory attack on the camp, and set fire to hundreds of homes” the sources reported. They said that people were killed and injured, but could not provide detailed information about numbers.

Radio Dabanga has tried to contact the governor of North Darfur and the local authorities, but was unable to reach them.

More houses destroyed by fire

In Dar El Salam locality, neighbouring Tawila, “a group of armed men” torched hundreds of houses in Amgeigou village.

Villagers from the area reported that “the people of Amgeigou fled their homes in the past two months because of the continuous attacks by armed men”.

They said that a delegation of villagers requested the North Darfur authorities in a meeting in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher to enable them to return to Amgeigou to collect the property they had to leave when they fled. “The attackers however pre-empted the return of the villagers and burned all the houses including their contents.”

houses including their contents.”

‘Licensed’

According to Sudan researcher and analyst Eric Reeves, the Arab militiamen in North Darfur “see the coup as a license to resume attacks on non-Arab farmers without fear their crimes will be communicated”.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Reeves posted a report on the “widespread ethnic violence” in the region, saying that a new wave of displacement is taking place in Tawila. “Around 2018 families have managed to reach Zamzam camp in the past 48 hours,” . Among them are “many women who suffered horrendous beatings-many with broken arms and elbows, many more who suffered blows to the heads [..]”.

Source: Radio Dabanga