Day: June 25, 2022

Hundreds of Sudanese women, dressed in white Toub, women’s national dress, Saturday took to the street in Omdurman city calling for an end to excessive violence against protesters and the restoration of a civil rule.

The women’s rally was organised by the pro-democracy Kandakat,(Nubian queens) group with the participation of over 20 women’s organizations including mothers of martyrs, gender groups, lawyers, doctors, as well as political parties.

The demonstrators chanted slogans hostile to the military coup such as “The Revolution is the revolution of the people, the authority is for the people, and the military have to go back to the barracks”.

Also, they chanted slogans reminding women’s role in the December revolution “O Girls, stay steady. The revolution is a girls’ revolution”.

Despite several cases of sexual assaults and rape by the security forces on detained female protesters, Sudanese women continue to participate in the anti-coup demonstrations organized by the neighbourhood committee in Khartoum state.

A member of the Lawyers Without Borders group, Iqbal Ahmed Ali, told the Sudan Tribune; that the White Toub demonstration was organized in order to stop the bloody violence against the anti-coup protesters, especially after the increasing use of the cartridge weapon.

“The demonstration is a message to the security forces and the police to stop killing of the Sudanese people, but also to advertise for the June 30 protest,” she further said.

Activists and political parties launched since a week a campaign calling to demonstrate on June 30 against the military coup of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Millions of Sudanese took to the street on June 30, 2019, to denounce the killing of peaceful sit-inners outside the army command in Khartoum.

The 2019 protest forced the Transitional Military Council to accept to hand over power to a civilian government and started negotiations with the Forces for Freedom and Change.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudan has started consultations aimed at revising and reforming its Petroleum Act 2012, an official said on Thursday.

The Petroleum Minister, Puot Kang Chol said the new move seeks to regulate the downstream operations of the country’s oil sector.

The current law, he said, only covers upstream operations of the oil sector.

“If you look at the current Petroleum Act that we have, it does not cover much the downstream, where we talk basically about things to do with petroleum economics, depots, petrol stations, and now we will be coming up with oil refineries, we must be regulated by laws,” explained Chol.

The minister made the remarks during a consultative meeting held in Juba.

According to the minister, inconsistences within the oil sector should be addressed during the consultative meetings organized by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC), the body that has been mandated to supervise reforms in the economic and governance sectors.

Moses Makur Deng, the Governor of the Bank of South Sudan, said that the current Petroleum Act was imposed on the country, adding that the revised law must address environmental issues as well as community welfare.

“The current Act is superficial and was imposed on South Sudanese, so I am warning this time that this dimension must be taken care of properly, we should not be seen as receiving anything from anywhere we should own the laws,” he told Xinhua.

The NCAC chairperson, Gichira Kibara said amendments within the oil sector be informed by real needs and must protect the country’s interests.

Source: Sudan Tribune

South Sudanese lawmakers and officials from the Transport ministry say they are unaware of the resumption of the river transport between the world’s youngest nation and neigbouring Sudan.

Last month, South Sudan’s presidential advisor on security affairs, Tut Gatluak Manime and Sudan’s acting Governor of White Nile State, Omar Al-Khalifa Abdullah announced the resumption of the river transport means.

Both leaders said orders came from the top leadership of the two countries.

South Sudan’s acting Minister of Transport, Simon Mijok Mijak on Thursday said he was not aware of a deal to revive river transport system with Sudan.

The official was appearing before members of the specialized committee on transport in the Revitalized Transitional National Legislative Assembly.

“On our part as Ministry of Transport, we have no information brought to us. We just heard what was reported in the media that the river transport is re-opened. We in the Ministry of Transport were not aware of it,” said Mijak.

Members of the parliamentary committee also wondered how transport between the two nations could resume without the ministry’s knowledge.

“We [legislators] were shocked because we are part of the government and we don’t know what is going on that why we summoned the minister to know from him and explain and answer all the questions,” said Glory Philemon, who heads parliament’s specialized committee on transport.

A national assembly is constitutionally mandated to summon political post holders or anyone it feels could provide information beneficial to citizens.

South Sudan’s advisor on security affairs announced early this month the resumption of water transport between the two countries after 11 years.

The brief seizure by South Sudan forces of Heglig, an oil processing hub controlled by Sudan, led to a strain in relations between the two nations.

Source: Sudan Tribune