January 11, 2022

Sudan’s Deputy Chief of Staff: Joint security force for Darfur ‘a first step’

The procedures for implementing the security arrangements for the Darfur movements were launched yesterday at the former headquarters of the UNAMID mission in the North Darfur capital El Fasher. Sudan’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Lt Gen Khaled El Shami, confirmed that the implementation began yesterday, with procedures for absorbing the forces of the rebel movements into a joint security force with special tasks in Darfur.

The governor of North Darfur, Nimir Abdelrahman, said that the start of the implementation of the security arrangements procedures for the joint force with special tasks in Darfur is a first step to complete the implementation of the security arrangements clause in the region.

The recruitment official, Brig Gen Kamal Omar, explained that the integration procedures begin with the initial examination of the combatants’ records, followed by the medical examination, and then the chips and the civil registry.

Brig Gen Hafez Mohamed, commander of the medical arm, said that yesterday medical procedures included more than 110 combatants of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in terms of physical fitness and laboratory examination, and said that all of them passed those tests.

In Khartoum, former rebel leader and member of the Sovereignty Council, El Hadi Idris, announced that the government at the national and state levels has taken some measures and will stop the violence in Darfur.

Idris said during a meeting with the British Ambassador to Khartoum, Giles Lever, at the Republican Palace yesterday that among the measures taken was the formation of the joint force to protect civilians in Darfur and said that this force would contribute to limiting such incidents in the future.

The British ambassador announced his country’s support for the UN initiative for a solution Sudan He stressed that Britain will work with its partners at the regional and international levels, to help the Sudanese to reach a political consensus conducive to forming a government and preparing the environment for elections and a democratic transition.

On Monday, the five states of Darfur, at the headquarters of the UNAMID mission in El Fasher, received their shares of the assets and equipment left by the mission for civilian purposes after completing its tasks in Darfur in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution.

The governor of North Darfur, Nimir Abdelrahman, said the assets handed over Monday to the states committee are four-wheel drive vehicles, large lorries, generators, and other tools for civilian use.

The representative of the Darfur States Delivery Committee representing Central Darfur, Seifeldin Ismail, said that the states received the remainder of their assets from UNAMID yesterday, and they will be transferred from El Fasher to the states in the coming hours.

He added that the delivery of this equipment and machinery will represent an opportunity to improve the living standards of people in the region. The Deputy Governor of Darfur, Mohamed Eisa, and a number of military and executive leaders in the state participated in the ceremony.

Looting

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the ongoing insecurity in Darfur, often partly exacerbated by the vacuum created by the UNAMID drawdown, has meant that the practicalities of the handover of UNAMID sites and facilities have not always gone as planned.

Warehouses of the World Food Programme (WFP) on December 29, and the former United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) logistical base north of the capital, was plundered on December 24-25.

On June 5, two people were killed and eight others sustained injuries when a former UNAMID site in Shangil Tobaya, Dar El Salaam locality, south of El Fasher in North Darfur was looted.

The site was handed over to the Government of Sudan on May 25. It was the last of 14 deep field sites handed over to the Sudanese government. At the time, the North Darfur government and the Sudanese government’s joint task force strongly reconfirmed their commitment to ensure civilian use of the former site.

Since the mission ended its mandate at the end of last year, various former UNAMID sites handed over to local authorities to be used as schools or training centres, have been looted. In February, a site in North Darfur’s Saraf Omra that was earmarked for use as a vocational training centre was looted and ‘levelled’ just weeks after it was handed over to the Sudanese government.

Source: Radio Dabanga

January 11, 2022

Darfur Women Journalists conference begins in Zalingei

The activities of the first Darfur Women Journalists conference kicked off Zalingei, Central Darfur, on Monday in in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), under the slogan “Together to raise the voice of patriotism and peaceful coexistence”.

Lubna Abdallah, head of the Sudanese Women Journalists, said that the aim of the conference is to identify the challenges facing the performance of Sudanese female journalists, calling on the responsible government agencies to support the recommendations that the conference will come up with.

She explained that female journalists in the centre and the states continued to suffer from marginalisation and exploitation by the editorial administrations, in addition to the lack of job promotion for female journalists and their absence from participating in the editor-in-chief, unlike only four female journalists who occupied this position during several centuries ago.

Sheimaa Haren, head of the Sudanese Women Journalists in Central Darfur, said that the conference will discuss a number of themes, most notably the challenges facing female journalists and the mechanism for finding solutions to them, and discuss issues of women’s advocacy and the role of Sudanese women journalists in the field of peace building.

Source: Radio Dabanga

January 11, 2022

UNITAMS head: UN will facilitate talks but ‘political solutions are up to Sudanese’

Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes, has announced the start of talks on the political transition in Sudan, in order to reach an agreement to end the current political crisis following the military coup d’état of October 25, and agree on a sustainable path of progress towards democracy and peace. As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, the initiative has received mixed reactions from various political forces in Sudan.

At a press conference held yesterday at the headquarters of the UNITAMS mission in Khartoum, Perthes said that the United Nations will present a process, rather than a draft, project, or vision for a solution in Sudan. He stressed that, contrary to what was reported in media reports (which he did not name), “the UN mission did not and will not present a project or proposal to the Sudanese to resolve the crisis,” stressing that “the role of the UN mission is limited only to facilitating the process of dialogue and accompanying the Sudanese people with its various components to get out of this crisis”.

Perthes stressed that the United Nations will not proffer any draft and will not adopt any project because it is up to the Sudanese to be the first to do so, and that “the time has come to enter into a comprehensive consultative process to resolve the crisis in Sudan”.

The UN envoy stressed that Sudanese parties need support from the countries of the world, and that the United Nations will work to facilitate this current stage in the country’s history. In this regard, the envoy asked all the parties invited to the dialogue to present their vision for the transitional phase, indicating that participants should determine the priorities.

He added, “We have heard the Sudanese call for democratic rule, and we affirm our commitment to that, and we expect the friends of Sudan to provide political support to get out of the current crisis. The UN envoy also called for an immediate halt to the use of excessive violence against the demonstrators, and an investigation into this. He said that the time has come to enter into a comprehensive dialogue and stop the excessive violence, noting that there are continuing casualties.

In addition, Perthes said that the country’s military establishment does not object to the mission’s initiative to announce talks on the political transition in Sudan. He said that the Sudanese consultations need the support of the countries of the world, noting that he will give a new briefing to the Security Council and at the Friends of Sudan meeting next week, expecting that this will give effective political support to the initiative, and he made it clear that the initiative has so far found acceptance and blessing from all Sudanese parties. He said that if the initiative goes as planned, it will first agree on some points and then move on to other points in order to provide aid to Sudan, calling on all Sudanese parties to agree and sit down to solve the crisis, especially the resistance committees, some of whom expressed their disapproval of sitting with the military part.

Perthes said he expects that the initiative will lead to building confidence between the Sudanese parties and reducing violence.

Mixed reactions

The initiative has received mixed reactions from various political forces in the country. In the most recent of these, the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement, under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur, said that the United Nations initiative for a solution in Sudan would lead to a new failure, and stressed that any dialogue with the military meant to legitimize the ongoing coup.

El Nur told Radio Dabanga that the mandate of UNITAMS is based on the October 2020 Constitutional Document that the military component has overthrown, adding that the Juba Peace Agreement has become the cause of a new crisis in Sudan and the Sudanese crisis had further complicated. priority

The Darfur Bar Association (DBA) welcomed, in principle, the initiative of UNITAMS, to launch preliminary consultations between all Sudanese parties to establish sustainable solutions to all the problems and crises of the country. The DBA added in a statement that, while welcoming the UN declaration, given that the United Nations is an independent umbrella and Sudan is a member of it, the DBA renews its firm position that the proper approach to founding lies in the immediate procedural restoration of Sudan’s suspended constitution on June 30, 1989.

The Darfur lawyers will convey to the UN representative its position in principle with approval of the declared UN initiative, provided that dialogue begins between the Sudanese forces and parties without regard to the documents that resulted from the partnership between the military component and the forces of freedom and change, including that flawed constitutional document and the agreements concluded under it. While retaining any party the right to present its arguments in the dialogue.

The DBA advised the United Nations to organise workshops to rehabilitate and raise the capabilities of the leaders of the resistance committees, similar to the rehabilitation and capacity-raising workshops organized by the international partners of the former Sudanese negotiating parties.

Source: Radio Dabanga

January 11, 2022

Sudan doctors: Two dead, 96 injured in Sunday marches

Sudanese doctors have confirmed the death of 16-year-old, El Maasoum Hashem, who died from a brain hemorrhage as a result of being hit by a tear gas canister during the March of the Millions on Sunday. Hashem’s death follows the recent news of the death of 26-year-old Ali Hubeldin, who also succumbed to injuries sustained from a tear gas canister.

The death toll the military coup d’état of October 25 now stands at 63 demonstrators, following the deaths of Hashem and Hubeldin in Sunday’s March of Millions.

Monday’s announcement from the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors reported that 96 demonstrators were injured: including one case of a person being shot with live bullets in the leg, along with nine cases of head injuries caused by tear gas canisters and seven cases of injuries sustained by stun grenades.

In a statement, the police announced their version of events asserting that, a civilian died in Khartoum North and eight people were injured during the demonstrations.

They also added in their statement that 22 policemen were injured and had four of their vehicles destroyed during the Sunday demonstrations in Khartoum. In their statement, they said that 86 protestors were arrested and took the necessary legal measures against them in the jurisdictions.

The police statement appealed to the local security committees to sit with protest leaders to coordinate and determine routes of procession, as to ensure the safety of participants and protection of private and public property.

Source: Radio Dabanga

January 11, 2022

‘Central Bank to pump USD 13 million into the market weekly’-Governor Makur

The new governor of the Bank of South Sudan on Tuesday announced that they will auction an increased amount of USD 13 million to forex bureaus and commercial banks on a weekly basis in an effort to mitigate a run on the South Sudanese Pound (SSP).

Governor Moses Makur Deng announced that the Central Bank increased the amount to be auctioned to forex bureaus from USD 2 million to 5 million and that to banks from USD 3 million to 8 million to fight the rise in the dollar rate.

“The committee reacted swiftly by increasing the frequency and volume of the United States dollars that we are injecting into the market,” Governor Makur declared. “We have increased the amount to be auctioned to forex bureaus from USD 2 million to 5 million and we have increased for banks from USD 3 million to 8 million. So, we are going to inject a total of USD 13 million a week to fight this temporary increase in the dollar rate.”

He added: “We will continue to do that until the dollar is stabilized where we want it to be. We know where we want it to be and we will continue to intervene. But as I said, as we approach the end of January, the rate will begin to come down dramatically.”

The Central Bank chief said that unless there are speculative activities involved, the increased amount of US dollars to be injected into the market will bring down the dollar rate.

“Unless there are speculative activities, the amount is too big for this market for the dollar to continue to go up,” Governor Makur said.

Regarding the skyrocketing commodity prices, he absolved the Central Bank and said the institution was not responsible for controlling market prices but attributed it to an increase in taxation rates.

Source: Radio Tamazuj