Day: August 26, 2022

The authorities in El Nehoud in West Kordofan temporarily suspended their work this week, in compliance with the request of the Humur tribe after conflict over new unilateral border demarcations. An armed group also closed the road linking El Nehoud with El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, on Wednesday, but it was reopened hours later on the orders of Humur leaders.

According to various sources, oil fields were also closed in protest.

Abdelgader Munim Mansour, Nazir* of the Humur clans, attributed the escalation to the expropriation of large lands belonging to the Humur in favour of Misseriya tribesmen in the area.

On Radio Dabanga’s Voice of the States programme, Mansour explained that the West Kordofan Security Committee and a group of Misseriya people formed unilateral committees to demarcate the borders between the two tribes without notifying the Humur.

The Humur then submitted a request to discuss the issue, but the Misseriya refused that and proceeded to draw the newly defined borders. This brought the Humur to declare the escalation of protests. They also sent a delegation to Khartoum to discuss problem.

‘The West Kordofan Security Committee and a group of Misseriya people formed unilateral committees to demarcate the borders between the two tribes without notifying the Humur’

The National Umma Party (NUP) said that it held separate meetings with the governor of West Kordofan and other state politicians and with Humur Nazir Mansour and the emir of Dar** Humur in Khartoum to discuss the situation in the state.

In a press statement yesterday, the NUP explained that the emir affirmed their adherence to their legitimate historical and political demands and their full commitment to keep the El Nehoud-El Obeid road open to traffic. The emir also promised to make every effort to convince his tribesmen to follow peaceful and legitimate means.

The NUP said it secured the re-demarcation of the administrative borders in the region to be conducted by the National Border Commission, instead of the state’s security committee.

The governor of West Kordofan, Khaled Ahmed Jeili, told Radio Dabanga’s Voice of the States programme that the situation in West Kordofan is calm and that work in the government offices is ‘proceeding normally’.

Last month, a farmer was killed and 20 others were injured in clashes north of El Sunut in West Kordofan and other deadly conflicts occurred in May and June without adequate intervention by authorities, showing the tense relations in the area.

Source: Radio Dabanga

At the end of the Conference on Crucial Issues for Eastern Sudan in Khartoum on Wednesday, 28 eastern Sudanese political parties and civil society groups signed an agreement stipulating the speedy implementation of the Eastern Sudan Track protocol. Resistance committees criticised the conference.

Ibrahim Ismail Jami, head of the conference’s preparatory committee, explained that the Conference on Crucial Issues for Eastern Sudan aimed to correct the imbalance between Sudan’s centre and the east and put an end to the marginalisation of eastern Sudanese and the absence of authorities in eastern Sudan.

Munir Saeed, a member of the conference’s preparatory committee, explained the contents of the agreements to reporters after the conference, which was held in Khartoum.

The new eastern Sudanese agreement adopts a federal system for the governance of the three eastern Sudanese states (Red Sea state, Kassala, and El Gedaref) while preserving the authorities of each state until the convening of a federal governance conference.

He said that the agreement stipulates the representation of eastern Sudanese “in all civil and military institutions” and fair compensation for the victims of conflicts in the region.

Saeed explained that a number of participants raised the issue of autonomy and self-determination.

The participants of the conference also stressed the need for unity of the eastern Sudanese on strategic issues and the criminalisation of racism and hate speech.

The main conclusion of the conference was the speedy implementation of the Eastern Sudan Track protocol.

The conference organisers stressed that eastern Sudan has been cut off from participation in power after the suspension of the Eastern Sudan Track in December last year on the request of the High Council of Beja Nazirs* and Independent Chieftains.

Jami said the agreement contains the documents of the formation of the Beja Congress in 1958, the peace agreements of Asmara (1995) and Juba (2020), the outcomes of the Sinkat, Shamboub, and Telkok conferences, and various other documents, including reports about the Port Sudan massacre that happened in January 2005.

The organisers of the conference have so far been keen to stress the widespread participation of political and civil society groups, even stating that the conference would be held with the participation “of all political parties, movements, civil society organisations, and resistance committees of eastern Sudan”.

However, the influential High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains and local resistance committees stressed that they did neither participate in nor were involved in the preparation of the conference.

Criticism

The Port Sudan Resistance Committees reported in a statement on Wednesday that they did not take part in the conference.

The grassroots committees considered the conference “a circumvention of the issues of eastern Sudan” and explained that they think the conference is used “for the purposes of a few people trading the demands of the people of the East”.

“The crucial issues of eastern Sudan belong to its people and should not be discussed in isolation, without involving the people in dialogue and decision-making,” they said.

‘The resistance committees and most of the other political and civil society groups had nothing to do with the preparation of the conference’ – Jaafar Khidir

Jaafar Khidir, an activist from El Gedaref, criticised the conference on Wednesday. “It is an attempt to search for a foothold in authority after reaching a settlement that will keep the putschists in power,” he said in an interview with Radio Dabanga’s Sudan Today programme.

“The resistance committees and most of the other political and civil society groups had nothing to do with the preparation of the conference,” he stated and accused the Sudanese authorities of “manipulating the issues of eastern Sudan and some of its civil and political leaders in order to stay in power”.

Khidir instead called for holding “grassroots conferences in all parts of eastern Sudan […] to address real issues, such as power and wealth sharing, and develop projects to compensate for the decades-long marginalisation”.

He further stressed the need for all eastern Sudanese to be united in order to overthrow the coup and establish a civil and democratic state.

Beja nazirs council

Earlier this week, Radio Dabanga reported that the High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains refused to attend the conference as they oppose the Eastern Sudan Track protocol.

The Beja nazirs council has opposed the Eastern Sudan Track since it was first agreed upon by the Sudanese government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance in the South Sudan capital of Juba in February 2020 as part of the Juba Peace Agreement.

The track was negotiated by the Beja Congress in Opposition and the United Popular Front for Liberation and Justice. The High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains was not involved in the Juba peace talks.

Last month, the High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains warned of the dire consequences of any political settlement in which the eastern Sudanese are not involved. They also highlighted that at least 39 Beja council supporters were killed in the past two years of protests against the Eastern Sudan Track.

Source: Radio Dabanga

On Monday, the police carried out a ‘head-shaving campaign’ targeting a group of young men at the Bahri Market in Khartoum North. In response, a group of young Sudanese decided be ahead of the police by shaving their heads themselves.

The practice is similar to what the now dissolved Public Order Police used to do, claiming to “maintain appearance in public places”.

In a mockery of the campaign, young men shaved their heads bald and published their photos on social media platforms with the hashtag #shave bald, leave the public order out in the cold.

The Khartoum North Resistance Committees fiercely condemned the campaign. One of its members told El Jerida newspaper that “We will not allow the notorious Public Order Law to return again. It is time to overthrow the regime”.

The Public Order Law was officially abolished in November 2019, after the downfall of Al Bashir. The system disproportionately affected women in the country.

Al Taghyeer newspaper on Tuesday as well referred to the return of the Public Order Police, pointing to the recently established Community Police* – although the Ministry of Interior more than once stated to the public that the new police force will be different from the Public Order Police.

The online newspaper Medameek reported that the police, apart from dispersing youth gatherings in Khartoum North, chased young women because of their allegedly indecent outfits, and held tea and food vendors and confiscated their belongings.

In conjunction with the police campaign, the Khartoum state authorities announced they will close the food and beverage outlets on Tuti Island, on the conjunction of the White and Blue Nile, which became a place for entertainment and concerts since the December 2018 revolution.

The Khartoum Security Committee said the decision to close the outlets following complaints of the residents of Tuti about the increased number of petty crimes on the island. The Ministry of Interior confirmed in a separate statement that the decision is concerned with “combating criminals, eliminating their hideouts, and preventing violence”.

Previously, police forces dispersed youth gathering on and near the Tuti bridge, which connects central Khartoum with the island, and stopped a public concert by singer Moataz Sabahi.

Footballers

Earlier this year, security forces launched a head-shaving campaign in El Obeid, capital of North Kordofan.

Among the victims were two members of the El Amal football team, that was visiting El Obeid for the Sudanese Premier League tournament, El Araby El Jadeed reported on February 22.

The incident provoked great discontent in political and sports circles, which prompted the North Kordofan police chief to visit the team and officially apologised to them.

Activists wondered why the police chief did not apologise to the other victims of the campaign that aimed, as they told El Araby El Jadeed, “to shave young people’s sense of power” in an attempt “to humiliate us” and “to break the movement rejecting the coup of the army leader Abdelfattah El Burhan” in October last year.

Activist Abdallah Bashir said that the shaving campaign was carried out by a joint force of army soldiers, security forces, paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, and policemen in many places in the city, in particular in places where youth usually meet, in clubs and parks.

Humiliation

During the era of dictator Omar Al Bashir, Radio Dabanga received more than once reports about the practice to shave heads of both men and women in order to punish them.

Residents of Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, for instance were beaten with whips and had their hair shaved because they allegedly violated a curfew in the city in July 2019. A female student had her hair cut as well for not covering her head.

During the violent dispersal of the Khartoum sit-in on June 3, protesters were (partly) shaved as well.

In September 2018, RSF members shaved the heads of young men with “deviant hair styles” in various neighbourhoods in Khartoum North. A month earlier, RSF forces seized secondary school students and shaved their heads in North Darfur’s Mellit.

In Northern State, dozens of youths and students were convicted to be shaved in public for their alleged odd haircuts and wearing of inappropriate dress in November 2017.

It seems that people may decide to humiliate others and shave their heads for a different reason, as Radio Dabanga reported in October 2017 that gunmen in Kutum, North Darfur, shaved the head of a 13-year-old girl because she belonged to a certain tribe.

Source: Radio Dabanga