Day: November 14, 2022

The governor of Warrap State has advised the youth in the state not to abandon time-tested cultures for new and negative practices and said he will be forced to make laws to deal with errant youths.

Gen. Aleu Ayieny Aleu was speaking on Sunday during the launch of the cultural day at the Kuajok Cultural Theatre which was attended by the Kuac, Aguok, Luou, Twic Mayardit, and Shilluk cultural groups among others.

“To you, my people, do not abandon our cultures or you will force me to make a law that will arrest you. Young people go for night dances and after a while, you cannot hear any songs or see any dances going on because people have paired up and gone some distance away,” he said. “During our time, youth met in open playgrounds and they performed their songs and danced through the night and yet marriages happened through doors, unlike these days where almost every family is formed through windows. This is one of the causes of conflict in the communities.”

Governor Aleu appreciated the different cultural groups, including Western Bahr El Ghazal State’s Luou Cultural Group from Alel-Thony Payam, and urged the cultural troop from Abyei to perform freely, saying their security was guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Tereza Chol, the Shilluk (Chollo) Dance Group leader, said she was proud to showcase her culture.

“We the Shilluks are so proud of our culture and if you have one sheet of cloth and beads like this, you can use them to show your culture everywhere you live because we are married by Dinkas but still distinguished as Shilluk,” she said. “When you want to offer food and water to your husband, you kneel as a sign of respect.”

On his part, Marko Abuyou Akech, a dancer with the Luou Dance Group, said their culture is intact because it is revered and practiced.

“On behalf of the Luou group, I am happy to show my culture here and see other cultures too. We are from Alel-thony Payam in Western Bahr El Ghazal State and we have so many dances including “Adhuk” and our main food is dry groundnuts,” he said. “We also keep cattle for marriage and the number of cattle for bride price is determined by the two families. Unlike the Dinka, we pay between 11 and 16 cows as bride price.”

“We also keep our cattle in near our homes and only drive them to Dinka areas in the dry season and the Dinka do not rustle them,” he added.

Jenifer Nyibol Aguil, of the Twic Mayardit Cultural Group, said they take their culture seriously because it descended from their forbearers.

“Culture is very important for all of us and we are proud of our culture,” she said. “How we dress in Twic is very important because it came from our grandparents.”

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Discussions have ignited over forming professional associations or unions of farmers and livestock owners for those involved in the El Gezira Agricultural Scheme in order to address economic liberalisation of land ownership, seven years after the Farmers Union was disbanded by the Al Bashir regime in Sudan.

The views of farmers differ over the declared direction of the trend of working together in associations for those subject to the Scheme, especially regarding representation for the farmers in higher levels of government.

The Scheme, located between the Blue and White Niles south of Khartoum, used to be one of the world’s largest irrigation projects.

Discussions come against the background of farmers in the El Gezira and El Managil region stating last month that high production costs and taxes have led to “one of the most disappointing seasons that the area has experienced.” Earlier in September, the El Gezira and El Managil Farmers Alliance announced their categorical rejection of the increased taxes of SDG16,000 per feddan.

A farmer in El Huda Hussein El Khidir told Radio Dabanga that he rejects the idea of professional associations for agricultural producers. Associations have been formed previously and have offered no positive results, he said. On the contrary, farmers were harmed by unions in 2005, when they were politicised for the sake of the “ruling Islamists.”

Declaring his categorical rejection of the associations because they contributed to destruction of the infrastructure of the Scheme, he said that a new Farmers’ Union would be the best for farmers.

Farmer Heisam El Sawy also called for a return of the Farmers’ Union. He said that “the experience of a farmers’ union is marred by stigmas because the former leaders of the union were appointed by the regime of ousted President Omar Al Bashir.” He also stressed that the union is what represents and protects the farmers, which can be used as a tool to strengthen their demands and protect their land and produce.

A farmer in northern El Gezira, Kamal Sari, told Radio Dabanga that in light of the policy of economic liberalisation and the state’s removal of its hand from the El Gezira Scheme, farmers’ associations are the best option to represent farmers.?

He said that the Farmers Union is a platform for making demands to the government, which does not benefit the farmers as that is not what is needed. “Associations can advance production, and provide inputs and marketing opportunities,” according to Sari. He added that the associations would be founded on principles of democracy and transparency, therefore providing equal representation of voices.

Farmer Mohamed Kheir agreed that associations are the best way to represent farmers, noting that former experiences with unions have been “bad” and “did not provide the farmers with anything, only serving its members.”

A farmer in Saadallah considered that farmers and livestock owners associations could be the closest solution to the problems of the Scheme, and stressed the need for democratic principles in these associations to work, especially in the field of investment and produce exports.

Land grabbing

A statement written in August by Fatima Abdelbagi, member of the El Gezira and El Managil Farmers Alliance, notes the “toil” small farmers experience as laws and decrees since the 1970s have undermined “the rights of local communities, small farmers, and pastoralists to land ownership, in favour of the appropriation of large tracts of land for mechanized cultivation by rich investors, local and foreign, and elite groups.”

“This has reinforced a sense of neglect, marginalization and social oppression, as the expropriated groups have either been forced to work on low and precarious wages, or to migrate to urban centres,” according to the statement.

Land grabbing has become a global phenomenon, said Abdelbagi. One million acres, including 450,000 acres within the Scheme, have been granted by the Al Bashir regime to China to use for a period 99 years. The Farmers’ Alliance has condemned this action by the Sudanese government and China.

In addition, more than 600,000 acres of land from the Scheme were offered for sale to the United Capital Bank, due to a decision by Scheme managers in January 2012. The sale was halted by a decision of the Civil Administrative Appeals Court on a lawsuit filed by the Land Owners Committee, with the support of the Farmers Alliance.

Scheme background

Mostly based on the World Bank’s recommendation, the El Gezira Scheme Act was issued in 2005 and more than 1500 Water Users Associations (WUAs) were established in 2007. According to this act, farm irrigation and management including collection of fees and weed cleaning were now the responsibilities of the WUAs. Through the control of the minor canals and field canals, the reform transferred the responsibility of field irrigation from the government to the farmers.

President Al Bashir described the Scheme in late 2014 as “a burden on the country’s budget”. In September 2015, the Agriculture Ministry amended the El Gezira Scheme Act, aimed at transferring land ownership to the private sector and foreign investors. That same year the Farmers Union was disbanded by the Al Bashir regime, following protests over the Scheme.

In December 2019 the El Gezira and El Managil Farmers Alliance launched a rally to commemorate the founding of Sudan’s Farmers Union in December 1953. The demonstrators also demanded that the extensive irrigation project be revived.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The army’s Special General Mobile Court Martial sitting in Torit in Eastern Equatoria State on Friday convicted four SSPDF soldiers of various crimes and sentenced them to serve jail terms from a few months to two years.

The court heard 1o cases of gross violations including murder, adultery, breach of trust, and attempted murder.

The mobile court also demoted one SSPDF officer from the rank of captain to sergeant for breaching military command.

Brigadier General Thon Khamis Chan Ayiik, the president of the court, while reading the verdicts in Torit said 4 soldiers were convicted for grave violations.

“Today we handled 10 cases which include four murder cases one adultery case, one mistrust case, and three other cases. There is one officer, a captain, who killed one of his soldiers in Kor English, and other murders happened in Kor Romla and Magwi,” he said. Some of the grave violations happened within the barracks. Some of the violators were sentenced to two years imprisonment, some one year and others to serve a few months and one is to serve two weeks.”

Meanwhile, Major General Angom Ungom Chut, the SSPDF’s Division Seven commander, said the army is committed to holding soldiers accountable and urged them to desist from unlawful acts.

“We are not above the law and even those who rebel are not supposed to be rewarded but tried because these are murderers who went and killed innocent people.” He said. “If you go and fight the government, you are a criminal and have done a very bad thing.”

On her part, Doris Poni Mogga, of UNMISS’ rule of law division, said the UN will continue supporting mobile courts in the state to ensure armed forces are held accountable for crimes.

“Our intention as UNMISS is to ensure accountability and transparency within the South Sudan military and armed forces. We opted to support military justice because most times the military personnel have been accused of committing grave human rights violations and as a result, UNMISS decided to support the military justice directorate,” she explained. “We have been doing this to ensure that there is accountability within the SSPDF because there is a big gap. Most times, citizens are not aware that the soldiers are accountable.”

Eunice Nakiru, a representative from the Eastern Equatoria State Woman Association, applauded the convictions, saying it will build confidence and trust among citizens.

“This tells citizens that if anybody was killed, beaten, injured or robbed by soldiers, the law there and you can report them,” she said. “No soldier has the right to kill a civilian and the law is now active and this will reduce crimes committed by soldiers.”

Source: Radio Tamazuj

On Sunday, the Sudanese Central Bureau of Statistics (CBoS) reported that annual inflation fell from 107 per cent in September to 102.6 per cent in October.

After reducing the price of fuel in October by 25 percent and reduced the price of diesel by 1.8 per cent, the price of petrol and diesel was increased again on Thursday by Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Mining. Petrol has increased by almost 20 per cent, while the price of diesel increased by seven per cent.

According to economic analyst Hafiz Ismail, the increase can be seen as an unofficial tax increase, dubbed by pundits as stagflation. Professor Esam Abdelwahab Bob explained to Sudan Tribune in an interview on October 3 that he doesn’t have faith in inflation figures because “they aren’t grounded in authentic statistical surveys and given the stormy political climate they may not be true”.

Inflation was traditionally known to be the diminishing ability of a unit of currency to buy goods and services, but it could occur while the economy is still growing. However, these days and globally there is increasing talk of inflation coupled with low growth rates, high unemployment, depressed wages, and a growing deficit in the balance of payments. This phenomenon was prevalent in the 1970s and was known as stagflation.

On September 15, the CBoS reported that the annual inflation rate fell to 117.42 per cent in August compared to 125.41 per cent in July. In an interview on Radio Dabanga’s Sudan Today programme at the time, economic expert Sidgi Kaballo described the inflation figures as “disturbing” and warned of a “revolution of the hungry” if the root causes of the economic problems are not addressed.

Priority should be given to establishing an economic programme that addresses the economy and living conditions of the people, after the overthrowing of the putschists, he said.

The Sudanese government is not receiving any external support for its annual budget for the second year in a row, so it must rely on its own resources to complete the 2023 budget.

After a visit to Washington in mid-October, Minister of Finance Jibril Ibrahim repudiated any further tax increases. Yet, tax collection is below average and the same minister earlier called for expanding the ‘taxes umbrella’ [span of taxes] and said that he considered it “the most effective and successful way to increase tax revenues and combat tax evasion”. Sudan witnessed many protests against exorbitant tax increases.

On October 21, Sudan In The News published an investigation in which whistle-blowers in Sudan’s oil industry revealed that the military intentionally neglected securing oil fields in order to exacerbate the fuel shortages, providing justification for the October 25, 2021, coup.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The commissioner of Pigi County in Jonglei State has said the security situation in parts of the county remains tense with hundreds of residents displaced following clashes between the SPLA-IO Kitgwang factions in the area last Thursday.

Commissioner Nyok Malual Mayik told Radio Tamazuj over the weekend that residents left their homes due to the fear of renewed fighting after Thursday’s clashes in the Atar area.

“Those clashes erupted in Khor-Atar Ardheb between forces loyal to Gen. Johnson Olony and a spiritual leader called Makuach Tot. Civilians who were seeking shelters here after fleeing insecurity in Diel are the ones affected again,” he said. “There are civilian causalities but we could not get statistics because there is no telephone network there and I am not able to access the area.”

Commissioner Malual pointed out that hundreds have been displaced to surrounding areas and lacked food and shelter.

“Residents have now fled to Wunayen, Wunkiir, Wilnyang, and Amam,” he said. “They do not have food. There is hunger and they also live in fear.”

Gen. Simon Gatwech’s SPLA-IO faction could not be reached for comment while Sebit Koang of Gen. Olony’s Agwelek forces confirmed that there were clashes but said he could not comment further because he was yet to be permitted by his group’s leadership.

Source: Radio Tamazuj