Day: June 19, 2022

Today, as we mark the International Day of the African Child, Plan International Sudan, Save the Children, UNICEF, and World Vision International Sudan call upon all duty-bearers to stand in solidarity with Sudanese children and uphold the collective responsibilities to leave no child behind.

We are deeply concerned that Sudan’s worsening economic situation, ongoing conflicts, growing hunger, and the global impact of climate change, in combination with the protracted nutrition and water crises, will erase the gains made through our child focused interventions in recent years. Sudan continues to be, for too many children, a very challenging place to be born and grow up.

In 2022, aid agencies estimated that 14.3 million people across the country will need humanitarian assistance this year. Approximately 8.2 million of those in need of humanitarian assistance are women and girls, and 7.8 million are children. Due to the multiple crises – exacerbated by the war in Ukraine – this number is likely to only increase.

Currently, three million children under five years of age suffer from acute malnutrition, of which 650,000 children face severe acute malnutrition. Without any treatment, about half of those suffering severe acute malnutrition will die. Each year, 78,000 under-five children continue to die from preventable causes, a figure estimated to significantly rise if investments in the health sector are not increased.

Children, especially young girls and adolescents, are exposed to conflict, violence, abuse, exploitation, and nefarious practices, such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. Approximately 31 percent of girls aged 0-14 years have been subjected to FGM and 38 percent of girls aged 15-18 are married before the age of 18. Children living and working on the street and migrant children face serious challenges in accessing basic services.

In Sudan, 3.6 million children are out-of-school and 8.1 million in-school children are negatively impacted by school closures. Close to 17.3 million people do not have basic access to drinking water, while 24 million people don’t have access to proper sanitation facilities.

As humanitarian and development agencies, we appeal to the international community to increase humanitarian assistance and expand support to lifesaving and development services in Sudan. Let us make sure we help individuals and families, especially the poor and vulnerable, to cope with crises and shocks, in order to safeguard the future of the children in Sudan.

We urge Sudanese authorities to prioritize the protection and well-being of children, as well as the protection of their families, especially within the most vulnerable communities in conflict-affected areas of the country.

Let us all strive to urgently address the growing challenges which children in Sudan face to survive and thrive in order to build towards a peaceful and prosperous Sudan.

Source: UN Children’s Fund

A lawyer defending the Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC) members said that the purpose of the continued detention of a former police officer was to pressure him to waive corruption lawsuits he had filed against former regime leaders.

Abdallah Suleiman, a police colonel heading the forces tasked with the implementation of the committee’s decisions was arrested after the coup of last October. The other members have been released but he remains in jail on the grounds that there was a breach of trust case filed against him by the Ministry of Finance.

“The purpose of the continued detention of Suleiman is to blackmail him or to bring him to waive the lawsuits he filed in exchange for his freedom.” Rehab Mubarak, a member of the ERC defence team told the Sudan Tribune, on Sunday.

According to Mubarak, the police officer had filed 106 corruption cases against the leaders of the former regime at the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The police lifted Suleiman’s immunity, following a lawsuit filed by the wife of the ousted president, Wedad Babiker, accusing him of filming her during an interrogation at the headquarters of the Committee.

The judge requested his release in September 2021 as al-Basjir’s wife had withdrawn the lawsuit. But the police relieved him in December of the same year after the coup.

The lawyer stressed that Suleiman’s detention for nearly nine months without trial constitutes a clear breach of the law, the constitution, and human rights laws.

She added that the defence team demanded the prosecution to refer the case against Suleiman to the court, “since he is under arrest without legal basis”.

The coup leader Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan suspended the ERC activities immediately after the dissolution of the civilian government on October 25, 2021.

The lawyer ruled out their possible re-arrest, noting that this can only happen once they are convicted by the court in a new case.

Rumours circulated on Saturday that the military component is pressing the general prosecutor to re-arrest again the ERC leaders who are also leading members of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

According to the rumours, the coup leaders mobilized those who had been affected by the committee to lodge complaints against its leaders.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan’s Irrigation and Water Resources minister, Manawa Peter Gatkuoth is dead, a senior government official has confirmed.

The country’s The First Vice President, Riek Machar said in a statement that Manawa died at a hospital located in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday morning.

“He [Manawa] was, on Friday 17th June 2022, flown from Juba to Egypt after being attended to in Freedom and Baraka hospitals for chest pain in Juba. In Cairo, he was diagnosed to have been suffering from high blood pressure that destroyed the main vein to his heart, stomach and kidneys,” he said.

Machar said the former minister passed on at about 5:00am on Sunday.

He described the deceased as a “committed nationalist”, who was a strong believer in reform right from his university days as a youth leader in the Sudan.

“He was committed to do his outmost in achieving prosperity for people of South Sudan,” further stated the First Vice President’s condolence message.

Manawa, a member of the armed opposition’s (SPLM-IO) political bureau, was in March 2022 appointed minister for Water Resources and Irrigation as part of the power sharing arrangement in the September 2018 revitalized peace agreement.

In November last year, the South Sudanese official was selected as the chairperson of Nile Council of Ministers’ (Nile-COM), a body that comprises of all the ministers in charge of water affairs in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) member countries.

Nile-COM is the highest political and decision-making body of the NBI.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The lack of an agreement between the political parties forces the military component to retain power in Sudan, said the coup leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan who further accused the demonstrators of attacking security forces.

On October 25, 2021, al-Burhan seized power and dissolved the civilian government saying it was controlled by a minority of political forces.

In fact, the divorce with the formerly ruling Forces for Freedom and Change occurred after disagreeing with him on the rotation of the Sovereign Council chairmanship to a civilian leader, the reform of the security sector and the handover of their businesses to the civilian government.

In an interview with the U.S.-funded Al-Hurra TV, al-Burhan denied responsibility for their continued grip on power saying that the military wanted to restore civilian power as soon as possible, but the lack of political agreement led to their continued rule.

“On October 25, we were ready to stop the coup as soon as a political agreement was reached. We tell those who are talking about ending the coup that this measure (the coup) was necessary at the time (…) and we will stop our actions once an agreement is reached to restore the democratic path,” he said.

The FFC say that negotiations with the coup government should lead to the restoration of civilian rule and the total removal of the military component from power.

In a bid to justify the use of excessive violence against protesters, the head of the military-controlled Sovereign Council further accused the demonstrators of violating the public order and attacking police stations and government headquarters.

“The security forces have clear instructions not to attack protesters who want to peacefully express their opinion. Also, they are ordered not to carry weapons or chase demonstrators, and to remain in their positions and protect state institutions” he said.

The security forces used excessive violence against protesters and 102 protesters were killed. Further, the security agents are accused of raping detained female protesters.

The police forces are now attacking the demonstrators’ gathering points to prevent them from organizing demonstrations and continue to hunt protesters in the residential neighbourhoods after their dispersal.

Cartridge weapons

In a related development, the Sudanese police Sunday denied the use of the internationally banned cartridge weapon to disperse the anti-coup protests.

“The police forces do not use any firearms against the demonstrators, and they do not have any prohibited weapons in their stores,” said Police spokesman Brig Gen Abdallah al-Badri in statements to the Sudan Tribune about the use of cartridge guns on Sunday.

A report by the independent Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors on Saturday said that 8 of the 102 victims were killed by the internationally banned weapon.

The medical group further said that about 747 others were injured by the cartridge rifles in the protests led by the resistance committees.

Speaking about the rapprochement with the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP), al-Burhan said there is no alliance between the military component and the banned party.

“We do not ally with any political party, because that does not conform to the principles of the military establishment,” he said

He stressed that this party is prohibited from participating in the transitional period.

After the coup, Al-Burhan reinstated hundreds of NCP cadres to the civil service and the various security organs.

Also, he allowed wanted NCP leaders to appear publicly and organize demonstrations against the United Nations mission in Sudan.

Speaking about the suspended international economic support to Sudan, he simply said that his country “rejects any conditional support”.

The international community says the resumption of economic aid to Sudan depends on the restoration of a civilian-led government.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir has described late Manawa Peter Gatkouth as a “leader on his own,” who will be remembered for leadership roles played as a youth in the country’s political scene.

Manawa, who serving as South Sudan’s minister for Water Resources and Irrigation, died on Sunday morning at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

“On behalf of my family, the government and people of South Sudan, I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family, his colleagues in the cabinet, his staff at the ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, his community and all South Sudanese that are affected by his sudden departure,” noted Kiir’s June 19 condolence message.

The South Sudanese leader descried the minister’s death as “untimely”

Separately, South Sudan First Vice President Riek Machar described the deceased as a “committed nationalist”, who was a strong believer in reform right from his university days as a youth leader in the Sudan.

“He was committed to do his outmost in achieving prosperity for people of South Sudan,” he wrote in a condolence message issued on Sunday.

Manawa, who hailed from Akobo County in Jonglei State, previously served as Minister for Physical Infrastructure prior to the outbreak of the civil war in 2013.

A senior member of the armed opposition’s (SPLM-IO) political bureau, Manawa was in March 2022 appointed minister for Water Resources and Irrigation as part of the power sharing arrangement in the September 2018 peace agreement.

In November 2020, he was selected chair of Nile Council of Ministers’ (Nile-COM), the highest political and decision-making body of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) states.

Source: Sudan Tribune