Day: December 2, 2022

Activities have been taking place in Sudan as part of the annual international 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) since November 25, with calls for extra focus on the position of displaced women. The No to Women’s Oppression Initiative commenced its part of the international campaign with various activities today.

The No to Women’s Oppression Initiative announced the launch of its campaign on Wednesday.

Rabha Ismail, a member of the Initiative, told Radio Dabanga on Wednesday that the campaign will begin with a forum to discuss women’s issues and the violence they face, including the experiences of women during the 2018 December revolution as they faced violence, murder, rape, and detentions.

The 16 Days of Activism Against GBV is an annual international campaign that takes place between November 25 and December 10 and the No to Women’s Oppression Initiative has been taking part and played an important role in organising activities in Sudan in the past years.

Inclusivity

Ismail denied common criticism that the organisation focusses on women in Khartoum only and said that members of the Initiative visited Darfur, Blue Nile region, and eastern Sudan in the past three months to stand with women there, defending their rights and promoting women’s participation in political and public life.

She added that the 16-day campaign includes women in all states of Sudan.

Zahra Abdelnaeem, representative of civil society organisations in North Darfur, called for the need to unify the feminist agenda in order to establish a strong base to combat all forms of violence against women.

She said it is necessary to reach areas in the countryside and displacement camps, where women face different challenges, and pay special attention to those who were subjected to violence because of wars.

Displaced women are especially vulnerable. They often face assaults from militant herders, and in the past especially from the Janjaweed militias during the war in Darfur.

The Darfur Women Action Group posted an overview of recent GBV cases on its social media, outlining plenty of events in which girls and women were raped or assaulted, often by gunmen.

Other initiatives already took on and since November 25 in Sudan. EU staff in Sudan wore orange to call for “a future free from violence against women and girls”.

In South Darfur women police officers received extra training on investigations and managing GBV cases on November 27. The UNITAMS Police Liaison Officer Mariama Barry, who was involved in the training, also spoke at a launch event in the Beleil refugee settlement in South Darfur.

Special unit to combat violence

North Darfur announced its intention to establish a unit to combat violence against women in the state.

Addressing the audience at the celebratory inauguration of the campaign on Wednesday morning in El Fasher, North Darfur, Director of the Ministry of Welfare Ibrahim Mousa said that the Ministry will conduct awareness lectures for young women and girls in all the schools and camps in the city.

He added that the ministry will also maintain the Urinary Fistula* Centre in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in El Fasher.

Dire situation in Northern state

Ebaa Murtada, an activist for women’s issues in Northern State, reported a serious lack of doctors and obstetrics and gynaecology departments, especially in the far peripheral areas of the state.

“In some areas there are not even midwives,” she told Radio Dabanga. “We don’t even have measurement mechanisms to determine mortality rates among women.”

Many women are also exposed to domestic violence. “The economic situation is dire, and there is a lot of hidden poverty,” she explained. This makes women more vulnerable as it becomes financially impossible for them to leave their partners.

The culture of the local communities prevents women from going out to work or take up education for future work. “Going out to education and work is unacceptable for girls in many communities in the north,” Murtada explained.

She said that her activist group is trying to help women get out of the circle of poverty by working in trade and selling tea or food “in the informal sector”.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Sovereignty Council in Sudan and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) officially announced the signing of the framework agreement next Monday, ending the October 25, 2021 coup.

The separate announcements were released after a joint meeting that gathered General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo Hemetti, the signatories of the political declaration, Trilateral Mechanism, QUAD and EU diplomats in Khartoum.

“The Sudanese parties agreed that the framework agreement will be signed next Monday, December 5, 2022, with a broad local and international presence, in preparation for a new phase that the country will embark on,” reads a statement released by the Sovereign Council.

For their part, the FFC groups said that signing will be immediately followed by the completion of the details of some issues agreed upon in the framework agreement.

The coalition was referring to the issues of justice, security reform, review of the Juba peace agreement and dismantlement of the former regime.

They further stressed that the second phase will take place immediately with the “widest participation of the forces of the revolution and stakeholders to establish the transitional constitution.”

Once the constitution is drafted they will form the transitional authority in a period not exceeding “a few weeks” they stressed.

Threats after rejection

Minni Minnawi Political Secretary of the Democratic Bloc released a statement saying they had agreed to meet with the FFC at the residence of the Saudi ambassador but the latter rejected to come when they learned that two other members of the coalition would participate in the meeting with him and the coalition deputy leader Gibril Ibrahim.

In response, the secretary general of the National Umma Party issued a statement saying they had agreed to meet only Minnawi and Ibrahim but they were surprised to see them bringing other people who have nothing to do with the political process.

The FFC “will not waste their time in meetings with parties that do not believe in civil democratic transition and have no interest in the political declaration to end the coup or the arrangements related to comprehensive peace with the armed movements”.

In his statement, Minnawi further warned against signing the framework agreement saying “it is imposed on us against our will”.

In a tweet criticizing the framework agreement on Friday, Minnawi alluded that he received threats to kill him saying “Threats of elimination are welcome.”

The head of the Democratic Bloc Gaffer al-Mirghani did not make any statement since his meeting with the Trilateral Mechanism on Thursday.

Several sources say he agreed to join the framework agreement but he did not issue an official statement in this respect.

The Sudanese Revolutionary Front confirmed in a statement that they are part of the framework agreement and vowed to exert huge efforts to ensure the success of the political process to achieve the goals of the December revolution.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Sudanese political forces and the military component will sign a framework agreement Monday, a key step towards establishing a fully civilian transitional government, Yasir Arman told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

“A framework agreement will be signed 72 hours from now. The main difference between it, the constitutional declaration of 2019 and the November 21, 2022 Agreement (between al-Burhan and Hamdok) is the non-participation of the military in power at all levels,” Arman said.

He added that the transitional authority including the cabinet and the Sovereign Council will be entirely composed of civilians.

The FFC structures including the Executive Bureau and the Central Council held a meeting on Thursday to finalize the details of the agreement.

Asked about who would sign the declaration from the civilian forces, Arman disclosed that the signatories will include the forces of the revolution and the forces of the transition.

“The parties that will sign are the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), Sudanese Revolutionary Front led by al-Hadi Idris, Popular Congress Party, Democratic Unionist Party, and professionals and civil society groups,” he said.

As for the armed struggle movements that signed the Juba Peace Agreement, he added “Nothing prevents them from being part of this agreement”.

The National Consensus Forces including the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) of Gibril Ibrahim call to maintain the 2019 constitutional declaration.

The leader of the SPLM Revolutionary Democratic Current expected that political detainees will be released before the signing of the framework agreement.

“The agreement stipulates an end to violence against the mass movement with clear measures, the release of detainees, and a real transformation of the state apparatus, especially the media, in favour of a civil democratic transition”.

After the coup, Sudanese Islamists returned to civil service and took control of the state media.

Arman stressed that preventing the return of the Islamists to power was one of the triggers of the political process, pointing to the disastrous consequences they may cause in the country and the region.

He underscored the joint work with the tripartite and quadruple mechanisms and the European Union.

“They will be present, some of them will be observers to the agreement, and in other stages will become guarantors, but the first guarantor of this agreement is the Sudanese people”.

He added that the agreement should create room for more dialogue between the forces of the revolution to complete the goals of the December revolution.

He stressed the signatories would remain strictly committed to the December revolution and strive to complete the tasks of the revolution and state-building.

Following the signing of the framework agreement, the signatories have to develop four documents on accountability and transitional justice, dismantlement of the former regime, review of the Juba peace agreement, and security reform.

A deal on the four issues should be struck within a month from the date of the signing of the framework agreement.

The detractors of the political settlement accuse the Forces for Freedom and Change of giving up justice in exchange for the army handing over power.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The Democratic Bloc groups said they informed the head of the Sovereign Council of their rejection of what they called the “bilateral agreement” between the military component and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

The leaders of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi and Justice and Equality Movement and their allies on Friday met with the leader of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to discuss the ongoing political developments in the country.

Speaking to the media, the deputy head of the coalition Gibril Ibrahim made a solemn and short statement to the media announcing their rejection of a framework agreement based on the draft transitional constitution crafted by the Sudanese Bar Association.

“The bloc affirmed its rejection of any exclusionary bilateral agreement because it cannot lead to political stability, smooth transitional period or economic stability in the country,” said Ibrahim surrounded by the leaders of the coalition.

In return, they demanded that the military component stands at the same distance from the political forces. Also, they demanded the formation of a national committee to combine all the constitutional proposals in order to come out with a single document, he added.

The Juba peace agreement signatory groups backed the coup of General al-Burhan in October 2021 because they have a political difference with the FFC.

The bloc political secretary Minni Minnawi on November 28, accused the military component of asking the tripartite facilitation panel to deal only with the SLM-MM and JEM but not the Democratic Bloc.

Ibrahim concluded his statements by criticizing the role of the international community to facilitate an agreement between the political forces and the military component.

He said they inferred in Sudan’s internal affairs and violated its national sovereignty.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The signing of the ‘framework agreement’ between the Sudanese military and the Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC) and other civilian groups has reportedly been scheduled for tomorrow. The Trilateral Mechanism spoke with hold-out rebel movements in Juba in the hope to involve them in the agreement.

Sources from the FFC-CC told Radio Dabanga that its Executive Office on Thursday completed the final text of the initial agreement, after including all the parties’ comments.

FFC-CC had previously handed copies of the draft agreement to a large number of political parties and groups, including the resistance committees, and gave them a period of time to submit their observations.

This initial ‘framework’ agreement does not deal with the thorny issues of transitional justice, security and military reform, the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement, and the dismantling of the remnants of the ousted dictatorial regime of Omar Al Bashir.

Agreements on these issues have been postponed to the ‘final agreement’ due to the lack of consensus within the FCC.

The direct talks between the military junta and opposition groups regarding the handover of power to a civilian government were brokered by the African Union (AU), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the United Nations, who together form the Trilateral Mechanism.

El Hilu and El Nur

A delegation of the Trilateral Mechanism met with Abdelaziz El Hilu, the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N El Hilu) in the Nuba Mountains, in the South Sudanese capital Juba yesterday morning.

The delegation of the AU, IGAD, and UN envoys to Sudan, Mohamed Belaiche, Ismail Wais, and Volker Perthes, called on the SPLM-N El Hilu to support the framework agreement and return to the peace talks.

The hold-out rebel movement said in a press statement on its website that the ongoing political process in Sudan should lead to ending the hegemony of the military and not to restoring the old partnership between the military and civilian groups.

The statement stressed the necessity of addressing “the roots of the Sudanese crisis” and achieving a comprehensive peace, rather than dividing power among the existing political elites.

SPLM-N leader Gatiko Dalman reported on his Facebook page that the movement and the Trilateral Mechanism delegation agreed that the ongoing political talks will be a prelude to “a comprehensive and radical peace process”.

The delegation also met with leaders of the Darfuri Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) yesterday.

The SLM, another key hold-out rebel movement, said in a press statement on its website that its delegation had stressed that “any political settlement that does not fully achieve the goals of the revolution and does not find acceptance by the revolutionaries in the street and the Sudanese people is totally and completely rejected”.

The movement holds to its stance that “the solution of the national crisis does not take place through bilateral agreements that have been tried before and failed. It should begin with the distancing of the military from the country’s governance and the formation of a transitional civilian government of non-partisan technocrats, followed by a country-wide inter-Sudanese dialogue to address the roots of the national crises”.

‘The solution […] should begin with the distancing of the military from the country’s governance’ – SLM-AW

The SLM-AW stressed the importance of justice and insists that all those involved in crimes and violations against the Sudanese people must be held accountable.

The military’s demand for impunity has formed one of the main points of contention within the negotiations and agreements on the issue of justice, including possible immunity from prosecution, have been postponed to the ‘final agreement’.

The FFC recently denied that it would allow the military to escape accountability but resistance committees and families of murdered protesters fear that this promise might be empty.

Abdelsalam Kesha, father of a young protester killed during the demonstrations against the military junta, declared his rejection of “any option other than criminal justice” regarding the martyrs’ cases.

Human rights defender Abdelbagi Jibril explained that the military’s demand for immunities means that they fear the consequences of the actions committed.

Hold-out rebel movements

Both the SPLM-N El Hilu, with its stronghold in Kauda, South Kordofan, and the mainstream SLM-AW in Darfur did not join the peace negotiations in Juba. Both criticise the level of collaboration with the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s most infamous paramilitary that has been responsible for widespread atrocities in Darfur.

For years, El Nur adhered to his position that the SLM-AW will only join peace negotiations after security and stability have been realised in Darfur, Sudan’s conflict-torn western region.

El Hilu separately entered into negotiations following a visit of PM Abdallah Hamdok in January 2020, but withdrew half a year later?in protest of the chairmanship of the government delegation by Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

El Hilu described the Juba Peace Agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an alliance of a number of rebel movements, as “a quota deal between the elites and the RSF generals, which has nothing to do with the crucial issues of concern in Sudanese society”.

In a statement on November 16, 2020, SLPM-N El Hilu reaffirmed its position that “the path to peace begins by addressing the roots of

Source: Radio Dabanga