Day: November 10, 2022

The two visiting UN Security Council officials have completed their four-day visit to South Sudan pledging to gather support to respond to dire humanitarian situations caused by flooding and sub-national violence and review the arms embargo on South Sudan.

Both Jean Pierre Lacroix, the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations, and Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chief De Cabinet Executive Office of the Secretary-General visited the country over the weekend and met several political leaders and civil society groups in the country.

Addressing journalists during the press conference in Juba on Wednesday, Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the council is considering reviewing the arms embargo on South Sudan.

In May this year, the Security Council renewed the arms embargo, travel ban, and assets freeze imposed on South Sudan in 2018 for another year to expire in May 2023.

“The Security Council has determined a few benchmarks that it would consider reviewing the arms embargo and there are several benchmarks or criteria for which we can help. One of that has to be with the management of weapons and ammunition, how they have been kept,” stated Lacroix.

”Finally, on the hybrid court, we are actively supporting accountability and putting in place the mechanisms so that there will be accountability and the hybrid court is one of them,” he added.

Lacroix said despite the challenges posed by natural disasters and the persistence of intercommunal violence in many areas of the country, the implementation of the peace agreement must stay on course.

“We are committed to partnering with the communities and local and national authorities to address the security challenges, humanitarian challenges, and to address the challenges resulting from the natural disaster, and other such challenges. Ultimately, the political process is what will finally determine the future of South Sudan. If we are to have a successful electoral process in this country, this will have to be an inclusive one,” he said.

Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chief De Cabinet Executive Office of the Secretary-General said their visit was critical with meaningful engagements with different stakeholders in the country including women and internally displaced persons.

“This visit is important and it was my very first visit to South Sudan at what I consider to be a critical moment. We have already peace process issues and then activities on the way and at the same time, the country is grappling with the devastating impacts of the floods. We have this issue of this climate-induced disaster that has been on the top of the mind and top of the list of the challenges and the need for support from the international community,” he said.

Mr. Rattrey also encouraged South Sudanese to embark on agriculture citing that a vast area of the country is fertile for agriculture.

“As I traveled around yesterday, I see this country shouldn’t be food insecure and it should not be import dependent. I think there is so much potential here for developing agriculture. Get the technological know-how and learn how to process it,” he advised.

After the four-day visit on Wednesday, Mr. Lacroix and Rattray said they discussed a range of issues, including meeting with the political leaders, civil society representatives, and other key stakeholders in the peace process.

According to Rattray, flooding, and persistent localized violence are still major challenges in the country including lack of food, shelter, medical supplies, inadequate human resources, and lack of educational services in parts of the country.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Sudan’s Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Leader of Sudan’s Armed Forces, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, returned to Sudan yesterday following his appearance at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh.

El Burhan reportedly proposed a number of projects that would contribute and accelerate the climate change response methods of African countries in agriculture, pastures, and water-rationalisation to remedy the effects of Africa’s current environmental crisis, according to SUNA.

In his COP27 address to a number of heads of state, government officials, and leaders of various organisations, the junta head stated, “climate change has become the biggest environmental phenomena that haunts the world”.

He noted that climate change impacted “vital sectors related to people’s livelihoods”, especially in the case of farming.

He stressed that rain-dependent agricultural practices have greatly diminished, noting that “two-thirds of the population depend on it in order to obtain food”, according to SUNA.

The Sovereignty Council leader affirmed Sudan’s commitment in implementing the Climate Change Agreement, the Paris Summit Agreement, and the Kyoto Protocol.

SUNA reported that El Burhan also submitted a document to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat, Simon Stiell, which outlined a series of projects to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

In his address, El Burhan pinned high hopes on the Paris Agreement’s implementation, due to Sudan’s productive sectors being impacted so heavily by climate change. He added that climate change was what had led to “waves of displacement, population movements, and caused conflicts over resources”, according to SUNA.

As well as the international agreements, the junta head also affirmed Sudan’s commitment to a number of regional frameworks such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Regional Strategy, Regional Conference on Land and Conflict in Kampala, and Regional Ministerial Conference on Environment.

Sudan in crisis

Sudan is struggling under “a weak state unable to meet its people’s basic needs, warlord rule in many regions, and populations facing hunger or famine as COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war multiply economic burdens” according to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

As Sudan’s complex crisis deepens, reflecting that of many other fragile states around the world, climate change will only extend dry periods and worsen destructive floods caused by short heavy rains. Sudan is near the bottom of Notre Dame University’s GAIN rankings, which measure resilience to climate change.

Nonetheless, a USIP article published last month said: “An asset that can help Sudan build the more responsive governance it needs is the country’s remarkably vibrant, deeply rooted tradition of nonviolent civic action.”

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Sudanese Commander-in-Chief of the army and Chairman of the Sovereign Council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan issued a stern warning to the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and their Islamist allies on November 6, 2022.

“Our message to the NCP and the Islamic movement is, stay away and keep your hands off the armed forces,” al-Burhan said during a speech he delivered at a military base in Khartoum.

These remarks sparked concern among political parties which saw them as an indication that the NCP may be attempting to stage a military coup.

Coup fears

The political secretary of the People’s Congress Party (PCP) Kamal Omer made that fear known in an interview with Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV.

“The head of the military council has information that the NCP is working to summon the military establishment and [it appears] they did not learn from [former president Omer Hassan] al-Bashir’s experience,” he said.

But another PCP official downplayed these concerns saying military coups in Sudan are now a thing of the past.

“The principle of the coup no longer exists as evidenced by how the October 25th coup fared with local and international opinion rejecting it. But the danger lies in a [possible] corroboration between the military junta and the supporters of the former regime. Burhan tried to suggest he is not allied with the disbanded [NCP] party through ambiguous remarks” PCP spokesperson Awad Falasteeni said.

Military analysts in Sudan have long cited the strong presence of Islamists in military institutions as well as the experience they gained during the north-south civil war as a reason why they could be tempted to attempt a coup.

However, they also cautioned that even this would be a very risky gamble given the existence of other military forces. Moreover, all recent coup attempts involving Islamist elements were quickly neutralized.

NCP hits back

Amin Hassan Omer, one of the NCP’s leading figures, said that al-Burhan’s warnings were a result of “extortion” by leftist parties.

“If he is aware that there is someone out there using the army as a tool to rule then he is in the right position to deal with him,” Omar told al-Jazeera.

The end of the honeymoon

Islamists have recently called for demonstrations and mobilization to protest what they described as “foreign interventions” that are pushing for a political settlement involving the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition that Burhan pushed out from the government in his military coup last year.

Islamist leaders revealed that they have engaged in private meetings with Burhan as of late in order to convey their rejection of such a deal and warn of the consequences if it materialized.

They claimed that the army chief called on them to take to the streets to “prove their presence”.

Among those leaders was Nagi Mustafa who said that Burhan told some political figures that he was under immense pressure and that they should come out to show their support for him.

Hassan Osman Rizk, the VP of the Islamist ‘Reform Now’ movement, told supporters who demonstrated in front of the UN mission headquarters in Khartoum “We were in a meeting with Burhan, and he told us you guys have no presence in the streets and have no constitution. Now you see these crowds and battalions and our constitution is ready, drawn from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and we will deliver it in the coming days.”

Abdel Majid Abdel Hamid, a journalist and a member of the dissolved NCP, told {Sudan Tribune} that al-Burhan held three meetings last month with representatives of Islamic national forces and that in the last meeting he was warned that they will not stand by and watch a new alliance being formed with “political minorities” no matter how much support they have from regional and international forces.

Islamists complain about foreign interference

One of the sources close to Islamists told Sudan Tribune that Islamists believe that Burhan succumbed to foreign pressures and that he himself admitted during those meetings that the West and the Americans in particular are pressing hard for the formation of a credible civilian government.

But according to the source, Burhan cautioned them that the Saudis and the Emiratis in particular still reject any representation of Islamic forces in the civilian government. Egypt on the other hand is not opposed to the assimilation of moderate Islamist figures.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A man was killed inside the military intelligence headquarters in Safwa in estern Sudan’s El Gedaref on Tuesday. Family members of the slain man said that they tried to accompany him, but intelligence personnel assured them that this was a “routine procedure and did not require their presence”.

A relative stated that one of the military intelligence officers came to their house later on in the evening and informed them of his death.

The man’s body was reportedly taken to morgue in El Gedaref and awaits the necessary legal measures in classifying his cause of death.

Source: Radio Dabanga