Day: November 23, 2022

The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an alliance of rebel movements that signed the Juba Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government in October 2020, announced yesterday that it will back the upcoming political agreement, brokered by the AU-IGAD-UN Trilateral Mechanism.

Their condition is that their amendments will be included in the draft Constitution Charter prepared by the Sudanese Bar Association in August, which was amended after comments from the military.

In a statement following a two-day meeting of the SRF Leadership Council, the former rebel leaders confirmed that their amendments are related to the power structures of the transitional period and the Juba Peace Agreement.

They stated their support for the ongoing political process, calling the Constitutional Charter and the military’s input “an acceptable basis to build on.”

The SRF said it will discuss its amendments with the FFC-CC, the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party (that joined the rebel-dominated FFC-Democratic Block lately), the?[Islamic] Popular Congress Party and Ansar El Sunna El Mohamediya.

The SRF is headed by El Hadi Idris, who was appointed member of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council following the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA), and remained in this position after the coup d’état under the leadership of El Burhan in October last year.

SRF member Malik Agar, who is also a member of the Sovereignty Council, denounced the upcoming framework agreement between the mainstream Forces for Freedom and Change (FCC-CC) and the military junta a few days ago. He described it as “a waning opportunity which will further complicate the political scene.”?

The current framework agreement, to be signed by the Forces for Freedom and Change which includes a review of the JPA, implies that the peace agreement will be cancelled, according to Agar.?

The head of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces Abdelfattah El Burhan, stated that the initiatives to end the current stalemate will certainly lead to an agreement which facilitates the formation of a non-partisan civilian government of technocrats, leading the way to free and fair elections in Sudan.

During his address to the 17th meeting of the Regional Coordination Committee of the Directors and Heads of the Security and Intelligence Services in the Great Lakes Region yesterday, hosted by the Higher Academy for Strategic and Security Studies, in Soba, Khartoum, El Burhan reiterated the commitment of the Sudanese army to refrain from participating in politics and pledged to protect the transition to democracy.

‘Fabricated’ agreement

The FFC-CC has strongly denied rumours of its involvement in nominations for the position of prime minister and other government positions.

FFC-CC spokesperson Shehab Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga that “none of the previous meetings” have discussed candidates for the new prime minister, the Council of Ministers, or a new Sovereignty Council.

“According to the framework agreement, the issues of a full civil authority and judicial and legal reform is one of the tasks of the forces of the revolution, in addition to forming mechanisms to resolve these issues,” he explained.

Ibrahim attributed the resistance committees’ and some political forces’ rejection of the framework agreement to a lack of transparency in the process, and acknowledged the FFC’s failure to inform them about the contents of the text. He described their rejections as “impressionistic.”

FFC-CC members earlier said that the FFC-CC?plans to present its vision to all political forces in the country to discuss?their observations on the upcoming agreement.

Lawyers of the Communist Party of Sudan stated on Monday that they doubt that the draft Constitutional Charter which now forms the basis of the framework agreement soon to be signed by the FFC-CC and the military junta is the same text that was prepared by the Sudanese Bar Association.

Communist lawyer Omar Sid Ahmed told Radio Dabanga that the framework agreement serves the interests of a few political groups. The “fabricated document is only supported by foreign parties that have interests in Sudan.”

Calls for inclusion

Awatif Abdelrahman, chair of the Darfur Displaced Women, stressed the need to reach a comprehensive political settlement that does not exclude any political party, rebel movement, displaced, or refugees yesterday.

She told Radio Dabanga that the settlement must lay a building block for a transitional government and fair elections, in addition to reaching “a comprehensive peace that will give the displaced the opportunity to finally return to normal.”

People on the streets in Khartoum also emphasised the need for an agreement between the military and the FFC on the establishment of a new government of technocrats.

“We need a government as soon as possible to prevent the country from collapsing,” an engineer told a Dabanga reporter earlier this month. “It doesn’t matter who makes the agreement, as long as the government is capable to combat dire poverty and the growing criminality in the neighbourhood.”

Source: Radio Dabanga

After risking their lives on dangerous journeys, more than 50,000 migrants are known to have died worldwide since 2014, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Wednesday.

The tragic milestone was confirmed in a new report from the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, which also maintains that little action had been taken by any country of origin, transit or arrival.

“While thousands of deaths have been documented across migration routes each year, very little has been done to address the consequences of these tragedies, let alone prevent them,” said Julia Black, co-author of the study.

Drawing a blank

The nationality for over 30,000 people in the Missing Migrants Project is unknown, which means that more than 60 per cent of those who die on migratory routes remain unidentified. Thousands of families are left “searching for answers”, IOM said.

“As time goes by, there is no news”, IOM said, quoting a Moroccan migrant in Spain in 2021 who was searching for his brother who disappeared 20 years ago on route to Europe.

Of the missing migrants whose nationality could be identified, more than 9,000 were from Africa, over 6,500 from Asia and another 3,000 from the Americas.

“Notably, the top three countries of origin – Afghanistan, Syria and Myanmar – are marked by violence, with many people fleeing their homes to seek refuge abroad”, IOM said.

Deadly legacies

More than half of the 50,000 individual deaths documented occurred on routes to and within Europe, with Mediterranean routes claiming at least 25,104 lives.

European routes also make up the largest number and proportion of missing and presumed dead migrants, with at least 16,032 recorded missing at sea and whose remains have never been recovered.

Africa is the second-deadliest region for people on the move, with more than 9,000 migration-related deaths documented since 2014. Regional household surveys indicate that these figures are almost certainly a vast undercount.

Dangerous routes

And in the Americas, nearly 7,000 deaths have been documented, 4,694 of whom were heading to the United States. The US-Mexico land border crossing alone has seen more than 4,000 deaths since 2014.

IOM has also documented another 6,200 deaths across Asia.

“Children make up more than 11 per cent of the lives lost on migratory routes in Asia, the highest proportion of any region”, according to the reoport.

It noted that of the 717 recorded child deaths linked to migration in the region, 436 were Rohingya refugees.

In Western Asia, at least 1,315 lives have been lost on migratory routes, many of which occurred in countries with ongoing conflicts, which make documentation of the missing extremely challenging.

At least 522 people arriving from the Horn of Africa have died in Yemen – often victims of violence – and 264 Syrian deaths have been documented during attempts to cross the Türkiye border.

Action call

IOM stressed that “obligations under international law, including the right to life, must be upheld at all times”.

The UN agency called for international solidarity in prioritizing search and rescue operations; improving and expanding regular and safe migration pathways; and ensuring that legislation prioritizes the protection and safety of people on the move.

“Regardless of the reasons that compel or drive people to move, no one deserves to die in search of a better life”, said IOM’s Ms. Black.

Source: United Nations

On average, more than five women or girls were killed every hour in 2021 by someone in their own family, two UN agencies said in a report published on Wednesday.

The study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women was issued ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed annually on 25 November.

Of the 81,000 women and girls intentionally killed last year, 45,000 – around 56 per cent – died at the hands of intimate partners or other family members.

Meanwhile, 11 per cent of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private sphere, revealing that home is not a safe place for many women and girls.

Individuals, not statistics

“Behind every femicide statistic is the story of an individual woman or girl who has been failed. These deaths are preventable – the tools and the knowledge to do so already exist,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director at UN Women.

The report is a horrific reminder that violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive human rights violations worldwide.

The figures also show that the overall number of female homicides?has remained largely unchanged over the past decade, underscoring the urgency for stronger action on prevention and response.

Count every victim

Too many victims still go uncounted, according to the report. For roughly four in 10 women and girls killed intentionally in 2021, insufficient information exists to identify their deaths as femicide.

“No woman or girl should fear for her life because of who she is,” said Ghada Waly, the UNODC Executive Director.

“To stop all forms of gender-related killings of women and girls, we need to count every victim, everywhere, and improve understanding of the risks and drivers of femicide so we can design better and more effective prevention and criminal justice responses.”

Having information about the relationship between perpetrators and their victims is crucial for these deaths to be recorded in official statistics, according to Delphine Schantz, Head of the UNODC Office in New York.

“There’s even less data available on gender-related killings committed in the public sphere,” she said, referring to incidents connected to armed conflict, gang activity, and human trafficking or other forms of organized crime.

“Not having enough data makes it harder to stop these crimes and to get an early warning and to develop policy,” she told journalists attending a briefing at UN Headquarters.

Ms. Schantz said UNODC and UN Women have developed a framework to provide standard statistical definitions and categories that will help countries to measure and count all types of gender-related killings of women.

A problem everywhere

Although femicide is a problem in every single country on the planet, the report points to regional disparities.

Asia recorded the largest number of gender-related killings in the private sphere in 2021, whereas women and girls were more at risk of being killed by their intimate partners or other family members in Africa.

Last year, the rate of these killings in Africa was estimated at 2.5 per 100,000 women female population in Africa. The rate was 1.4 in the Americas, 1.2 in Oceana, 0.8 in Asia, and 0.6 in Europe.

The findings also suggest that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 coincided with a significant rise in gender-related killings in the private sphere in Northern America, and to some extent in Western and Southern Europe.

Prevention and action

However, gender-related killings, as well as other forms of violence against women and girls, are not inevitable, the report stressed.

These crimes can and must be prevented with a combination of measures such as early identification of women affected by violence, and access to survivor-centred support and protection.

Other recommendations concerned addressing root causes, including through transforming harmful masculinities and social norms, and eliminating structural gender inequalities.

Strengthening data collection on femicides is also a critical step to inform related policies and programmes.

“Women’s rights organizations are already monitoring data and advocating for policy change and accountability,” Ms. Bahous remarked.

“Now we need the concerted action across society that will fulfil women’s and girls’ right to feel and to be safe, at home, on the streets, and everywhere.”

The report will inform the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

The annual international campaign begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs through Human Rights Day on 10 December.

Support women’s organizations

Sarah Hendriks, Director of the Programme, Policy and Intergovernmental Division at UN Women, recalled that this year’s theme focuses on activism.

Evidence shows that countries with strong and autonomous women’s rights movements have made greater progress in preventing and even reducing violence against women, she said.

Ms. Hendriks stressed the importance of supporting these organizations, saying they cannot be expected to tackle the problem alone.

“We certainly call on everyone to play their part, knowing that violence against women and girls touches all of our lives across every country. We believe that every single one of us can make a difference,” she said, speaking at the press briefing in New York.

Furthermore, women’s organizations are operating in “an increasingly complex environment”, she added, pointing to shrinking civic space and a growing backlash against women’s rights.

Ms. Hendriks outlined four ways the international community show support, starting with providing long-term and predictable funding for their operations.

She also called for amplifying the voices of feminist women’s movements “in all their diversity”, as well as promoting the full and equal leadership and participation of women and girls in decision-making.

Her final point underscored the need to strengthen protection mechanisms to prevent and eliminate violence against women human rights defenders and women’s rights activists.

Source: United Nations

A group of activists, human rights defenders, and media professionals spoke to Radio Dabanga about the danger of hate speech and racism in Sudanese society, following a seminar this weekend.

The Seminar for Promoting Public Campaigns to Combat Racism and Hate Speech, which was organised by the Regional Centre for Training and Civil Society Development in Khartoum on November 19 and 20, focused on the outcomes of racism and hate speech in the country.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga yesterday, the activists focused on Sudan’s decline as a result of bloody clashes caused by tribalism and racism in various parts of the country.

They stressed the need to criminalise dangerous racist acts and hate speech and called for the establishment of a broad coalition to combat the phenomenon.

Yousef Malouk, a lawyer and civil rights activist lauded the seminar. “We all benefited immensely,” he told Radio Dabanga, as it “gave us the opportunity to meet each other, exchange views, brainstorm, and come up with possible solutions.”

Malouk called for “better use of existing laws and enacting new ones that keep pace with the changes that have taken place since 2019, in order for all Sudanese to have equal citizenship rights”.

Rufeida Khalafallah, member of the We Are All People initiative in the Blue Nile region, told Radio Dabanga that they have set up an anti-hate speech campaign, and are touring the area showing anti-racism films. She explained that the recent inter-communal violence was “the result of rampant hate speech being uttered without any intervention from the authorities”.

Journalist Ayman Sanjerab spoke about the urgent need for serious work to promote peace and mend the social fabric, as Sudan has regressed a lot in peaceful coexistence.

Sanjerab called on the Sudanese to stand strong in order to achieve fairness, justice, and social peace, and get rid of “stinking diseases such as racism and tribalism”.

Arts and media

Regarding the role of theatre in combating hate speech and racism, dramatist Rabee Youssef told Radio Dabanga that arts and drama can promote peaceful coexistence. “Drama is one of the most important opportunities for the advancement of the peoples of developing nations if it is employed correctly,” he said.

Poet and dramatist, and composer Abdallah Abu Alag said that he is already working against hate speech and promoting peaceful coexistence in his productions. He is now preparing a new anti-hate speech clip together with rapper Mustafa Abdelsalam.

In April, two defence lawyers were caught on a hot mic making racist comments against the recently dismissed Director-General of the Public Authority for Radio and Television, Luqman Ahmed, during a live broadcast of his trial by the official Sudan News Agency.

At the time, a group of 20 Sudanese and international human rights and civil society NGOs addressed an urgent appeal to the international community “to draw attention to the growing threats of racism, hate speech, and intolerance in Sudan”.

Regional violence

“Sudan’s long years of internal wars in South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, and the ongoing fighting in Darfur are graphic manifestations of the country’s social ills and the proliferation of racism and intolerance,” according to the statement.

Sudan is a diverse society made up of over 19 major ethnic groups and over 500 different languages, along with a number of different cultures and religions. The country has historically been dominated by a light-skinned, Arabic-speaking elite, while black Africans in the south and west of the country have faced discrimination and marginalisation.

Racism is the primary cause of the atrocities committed in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and other areas of Sudan, according to prominent political analyst and journalist El Haj Warrag.

Young activists and Native Administration leaders in South Kordofan attribute the continuing tribal conflicts in the state mainly to armed herders and to the presence of militias formed by the regime of ousted President Omar Al Bashir.

In November 2020, youth leader Ali El Ameen told Radio Dabanga that the Al Bashir regime has used discrimination and racism in order to retain power since the 1989 military coup. He considers arming herders, who show little respect for agricultural lands when migrating with their cattle, the main cause for the instability in the country.

Reconciliation attempts

On Sunday, leaders of the Misseriya and Awlad Rashid clans of the Rizeigat tribe signed a reconciliation agreement under the auspices of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Central Darfur following in Wadi Salih and Bindisi during the past weeks.

Earlier in June, the Rizeigat and Misseriya tribes also signed a reconciliation document during a wave of reconciliation agreements in Darfur. These agreements brokered by coup leader, Deputy-Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, and Commander-in-Chief of the infamous RSF Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, have been criticised as being ‘superficial’.

In August, Blue Nile Governor Gen Ahmed El Omda Badi received a UN delegation working on reducing hate speech and hostilities in the region. The Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC) hold the ‘coup authorities’ responsible for the violent clashes which killed at least 70 people in July.

Source: Radio Dabanga