Day: January 13, 2022

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 15 attacks and invasions of health facilities and workers since November 2021 in Khartoum and other cities, of which 11 have been confirmed.

WHO director for the eastern Mediterranean region, Ahmed Al Mandhari, condemned the attacks as “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” calling for a stop to all activities that endanger the lives of health care workers and patients.

The statement referred to two reported incidents in which military forces raided health care facilities. Most of the attacks ranged from physical assault, obstruction, and violent searches.

He noted reports of arrests of patients and health-care workers, as well as injuries, detention and forced searches of health workers. Next to intercept ambulances, medical staff, and patients.

Last week, the Medical Bodies Coordination organised a protest sit-in at the El Jawda Hospital in El Diyoum El Shargiya and the Khartoum Teaching Hospital in the centre of the city, calling for an end to the repeated violence of government forces against health facilities and medical staff.

During demonstrations last week Joint security forces again stormed the El Arbaeen Hospital in Omdurman and assaulted the patients and staff, causing more injuries according to the Khartoum state Ministry of Health’s statement.

The forces also stormed the Emergencies Department of the Khartoum Teaching Hospital and threw tear gas canisters inside.

The Ministry holds “the military coup council” responsible for the safety of the patients and medical staff and called on “all international organisations to document all these incidents that infringe on human rights and violate all international charters and treaties”.

Source: Radio Dabanga

A 50-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of defiling his teenage daughter in Mundri of South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State.

Morson Bolo was arrested in September 2021 after allegedly defiling his 14-year-old daughter in Miri-Kalanga village on the outskirts of Mundri Town.

Speaking after the court sitting on Wednesday, Charles Sebit acting Paramount Chief for Mundri C court read out the ruling.

“In Article 247 he has committed rape against the underage girl. That is not all, Bolo has done a lot of bad things and people know Bolo is not a good person,” Chief Sebit said. “For this reason, we have sentenced Bolo to go to prison for three years without a fine effective today 12 January 2022 to 12 January 2025, Bolo will be in prison.”

Sebit said the culprit has two weeks to appeal the ruling if they feel it is unfair.

However, Bolo accepted the court ruling.

“I have nothing to say. I am ready for anything even if it is death,” Bolo said.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Darfur Wali (Governor) and former rebel leader Minni Minawi has pledged to recover all property looted from the former United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) headquarters in El Fasher, as well as the goods looted from warehouses of the World Food Programme (WFP) on December 29, and apologised to the international organisations.

In statements upon his arrival in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur on Wednesday, Minawi expressed his regret over the looting incidents that targeted the UNAMID headquarters in El Fasher and the warehouses of the WFP. “We do not accuse the citizens of these incidents, but rather ourselves,” Minawi said.

He said that “the parties that carried out the events are known and we do not want to name them”. Minawi explained that they held a meeting with the state security committee, during which they demanded that all the looted property be returned to the police.

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Professionals Association in North Darfur organised a protest sit-in at Freedom Square in El Fasher, denouncing the looting of UNAMID property. The participants in the vigil held the North Darfur Security Committee and the rebel forces responsible.

They explained that the looting took place despite the imposed curfew and demanded the dismissal of the governor of the Darfur region and the governor of North Darfur, the removal of the military forces from the city, and the lifting of the curfew. It also called for the formation of an independent investigation committee into the events.

The Sudan Liberation Forces rebel alliance headed by El Taher Hajar, now a member of the Sovereignty Council, denied that its forces of participated in the looting.

In a statement, the former rebel faction called for the formation of a fact-finding committee that includes all the security services, the existing forces, and the local El Fasher resistance committees. The statement said that the forces of the assembly were unable to control the groups carrying out the looting due to the lack of full powers.

The alliance explained that the State Security Committee did not issue any directives to resolve the intrusions into the UN headquarters and pointed out that the absence of security arrangements and the lack of formation of the joint forces is the main reason for the events. The former rebel group holds the state government, the security committee, and the state governor fully responsible.

Looting

On Monday evening and on Tuesday, a group allegedly consisting of members of government forces and former rebels reportedly looted all remaining assets of the UNAMID mission from its former headquarters in the North Darfur capital. Well-informed sources confirm the theft of four-wheel drive vehicles, lorries, equipment, and various other devices, by a large group of army soldiers, paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), policemen, former rebel combatants, and residents of the city. The base has been cleared of everything that was left after it initially was plundered on December 24-25.

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, implementing the security arrangements for the Darfur movements with a ‘joint force’ was launched by Sudan’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Lt Gen Khaled El Shami, at the former headquarters of UNAMID mission in El Fasher on Monday.

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 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

The Sudanese Journalists Network has condemned the arrest of Mohamed Khidir and Majdi Abdallah, photographers who cooperate with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, by the military authorities in Sudan, who continue to clamp-down on journalists, placing the country’s hard-won post-revolution press freedoms under stress.

The network says in a statement that the military authorities forcibly took the two photographers to the military district of Omdurman, handcuffed them in an isolated place, and subjected them to interrogation that lasted for hours, after they confiscated their mobile phones to restrict them and prevent contact with them.

The network demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the two colleagues.

Journalists and the media in Sudan have come under increased pressure since the October 25 coup, especially covering the anti-coup, pro-democracy marches and protests calling for a return to civilian rule.

Members of the joint security forces yesterday threw tear gas canisters at crew members of the Al Araby television network while they were filming the Marches of the Millions from their office in Khartoum.

The Sudanese Journalists Network said in a statement last week that the forces, after firing tear gas, cordoned the office for hours “in a new crime against journalists and media professionals in Sudan”.

Last week, joint forces stormed the office of the Arab Al Arabiya and Al Hadath satellite TV channels, assaulted the journalists present, destroyed their equipment and stole their belongings. They also threatened the staff of Asharq News Channel and Sky News Arabia.

Source: Radio Dabanga

An 18-year-old secondary school student was shot dead near Tur in Central Darfur earlier this week. The driver of a passenger vehicle was killed in Kabkabiya in North Darfur. In neighbouring Kutum, the police station was torched. Various armed robberies were reported in North, Central, and West Darfur. People living east of El Geneina fear new widespread attacks.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Adam Hokar reported the killing of secondary school student Hussein Abdallah on Monday evening.

Abdallah left a video club in Tur at about 21:00 on Monday to return to his home in the Eastern Tur camp for the displaced camp, when three armed men wearing military uniforms intercepted him. “The gunmen shot at him for no reason, which led to his immediate death.”

The body was buried in Nierteti, following an autopsy. The incident was reported to the police of the town.

Driver killed

On Wednesday morning, driver Abdelshakour Mousa was shot dead by robbers on the Sortony-Kabkabiya road in North Darfur.

Adam Juma told Radio Dabanga that three gunmen riding on motorcycles shot at a passenger vehicle on the road. Mousa (35), living in the El Salam camp for the displaced in the area, died instantly.

“The gunmen then robbed the passengers of all their belongings,” Juma added. The driver’s body was taken to the Kabkabiya Hospital for an autopsy, and reported to the police of Kabkabiya.

More robberies

El Khumus further reported that teachers Ibrahim Hasan and Suleiman Santo, were wounded in an armed robbery in Kutum town on Monday. “They stopped the teachers who they were returning to their homes by shooting in the air. They then beat them with sticks and robbed them of their belongings.”

In West Darfur, Yagoub Abufarar was wounded when gunmen shot at a passenger vehicle that was on its way from Murnei to the Sese camp for the displaced in Kereinik locality on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, gunmen plundered three lorries carrying passengers and goods on the road between Guldo and Nierteti in western Jebel Marra, Central Darfur.

Adam Hokar reported from Nierteti that the attackers threatened the passengers at gunpoint, and stole the luggage, telephones and money from the passengers, and fled.

Later that day, armed men robbed the passengers of a rickshaw in Saraf Omra, North Darfur.

Radio Dabanga reported earlier this week that a woman was gang-raped in Saraf Omra on Saturday. Nine others, including three children, were wounded in attacks in the area.

Avenge attack

On the same morning in the capital of neighbouring Kutum, a large number of gunmen riding in vehicles, on motorcycles and camels set the police station on fire.

“The violence came in response to the arrest by the police of two men fighting with each other on the Disa market on Tuesday,” Yahya El Khumus told Radio Dabanga.

“On Wednesday morning, large numbers of gunmen riding in vehicles, motors, and camels surrounded the police station, demanding the handing over of one of the detainees, their tribesman. When they learned that the two detainees were transferred to the military base nearby, they torched the police station. After that they raided the Disa market in the neighbourhood, where they stole dozens of heads of cattle.”

Calls for protection

In West Darfur, the people living in the area of Azerni, east of the state capital El Geneina, are calling on the authorities to urgently send more forces to protect them.

On Monday, a large group of militants stormed the Sabarna neighbourhood on Azerni, set fire to two houses and robbed a number of displaced people. “The people are afraid for the same kind of violence that happened in Jebel Moon, Kereinik, and Sirba in the end of last year,” a listener told Radio Dabanga from Azerni.

He said that military reinforcements have already arrived in order to secure the area, but that a number of people have already left their villages to seek protection near the military base.

Residents of El Geneina reported on Sunday that large numbers of militants armed with heavy weapons are gathering again in the areas north-east of the city.

In the past two months, militant Arab tribesmen attacked villages, towns, and camps in Jebel Moon, Kereinik, and Sirba in West Darfur. At least 200 people were killed, dozens of villages burned to ashes, and thousands fled to other parts of the state or to neighbouring Chad.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The highway linking Egypt and Sudan has been closed to lorry traffic for the fourth consecutive day, as farmers in the Northern State protest against a surge in electricity prices.

On Wednesday, the Sovereignty Council announced a freeze on electricity prices in the agricultural, industrial, and residential sectors, however, the farmers have escalated the civil-disobedience until all demands are met.

This decision came about in a meeting at the Republican Palace with the committee charged with reviewing the increase in electricity tariffs led by Abdulgasim Bortom. The acting governor of Northern State, Awad Gadoura, pointed to the negative impact on the agricultural and industrial sectors if the surge was to continue.

The closure of the highway excludes ambulances, emergency cases, and travel buses. The closure led to the accumulation of several lorries loaded with goods destined for and coming from Egypt, near El Multaga in Ed Debba.

Farmers from El Golid also joined the protest and closed the highway after the expiry of the 72-hour deadline given to the authorities. As well as the highway closure in Ed Debba and El Golid, the Merowe-Atbara-Port Sudan road is now blocked by angry farmers in Merowe.

Farmers told Radio Dabanga that the increases on electricity prices imposed by the federal authorities affects agriculture in Nile River state and Northern State, which depend on electricity for agricultural projects.

They warned authorities of the failure of the current agricultural season, if they did not cancel these increases, especially the upcoming wheat harvest, which they said needs to be irrigated before it fails.

Sources warned of the escalation of farmers’ demands to include other sectors. Speaking for the farmers, Soheib Osman told Radio Dabanga that the current movement would escalate, if urgent solutions to include the political demands that affect the mining sectors, dams, and investment projects were not met.

The El Hafeer Unit Resistance Committees Coordination and the farmers of El Wehda in Northern State, today announced the closure of Argeen Road at Jebel Bana.

The committees made it clear in a statement that the closure of the road will start 10:00, when a convoy will head to Dongola, to participate in the January 13 Marches of the Millions declared by the resistance committees. Since Wednesday, crowds had begun to gather in the area where protesters had set up the sit-in.

Source: Radio Dabanga