Day: January 11, 2023

Eastern Sudanese political analyst, Abu Fatima Onur, called for a separate negotiation platform to be established to work out the issue of eastern Sudan governance in an interview with Radio Dabanga. The head of the High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains, Sayed Tirik,?has?repeatedly called for such a platform.

This should only happen after a civilian government has been formed in Sudan, said Onur. He referred to the Juba Peace Agreement as an example, which came about after peace talks were held between the Sudanese government and a number of rebel movements under the auspices of the South Sudanese government in 2019 and 2020.

He recommended assigning political power to the region (Red Sea state, Kassala, and El Gedaref) during the transitional period “under a fully-fledged and operational federal system”.

“According to the principles of unified federalism,” levels of government should be similar in all regions of the country, he said. “Current disparities represented by regional governance for Darfur, autonomy for South Kordofan, and a distorted form of federalism for the rest of the states should be removed.”

The analyst called for restoring the borders of the eastern Sudan region to what they were before 1974 when President Jaafar Nimeiri annexed the Sidon administrative unit to northern Sudan.

In addition, “the depletion of eastern Sudanese mineral resources by River Nile state must be halted immediately,” and an Eastern Sudan Company for Mineral Resources should be established. “A fixed federal percentage of its revenues should be paid by the federal Ministry of Finance, as is already the case with the Maritime Ports Authority in Port Sudan,” said Onur.

Onur further urged “the opening of the eastern spillway at the Lake Setit (Seteet) reservoir, like the western spillway, to prevent the El Gash project from collapsing and the Kassala aquifer drying out. In addition, projects of the Infrastructure Reconstruction Fund, of which a significant percentage has been implemented in Red Sea state, Kassala, and El Gedaref, must be completed.”

Khartoum workshops

Currently, a series of dialogue workshops are being held in Khartoum, in which various stakeholders will decide on the fate of five critical issues to reach a consensus on the subjects. The outcomes will lead to a final agreement with the military junta on the upcoming transitional period and the competencies of a new civilian government of technocrats. This new government will be formed once the military has retreated from power and the Final Agreement has been signed.

This month, separate conferences, consisting of several workshops, will discuss justice and transitional justice, security and military reform, the removal of remnants of the empowerment* policies of ousted President Omar Al Bashir, amendments to the Juba Peace Agreement, and governance issues in eastern Sudan.

In his address to supporters in Kassala on January 1, Tirik again threatened to?announce?self-determination?for eastern Sudan if?the?government does not respond to their demands for a separate platform and development in eastern Sudan. Tirik has refused to attend “workshops on the side-lines of conferences” about the marginalised eastern region.

An empowerment removal roadmap conference was held in Khartoum on Monday morning to initiate the renewal of the empowerment* removal process. A new Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC) will be formed in the future, but without members of the previous committee that was suspended after the 2021 military coup.

Khaled Omar Yousef, leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change-Central Council (FFC-CC) which started the current political process?together with other pro-democratic groups, said: “The outcomes of the conference should reflect the largest social base possible so that this process is characterised by inclusiveness and includes the opinions of the stakeholders.”

The workshops are being held at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, not nationwide, as earlier announced. Displaced leaders in Darfur have called the workshops ‘elitist’.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Students from multiple universities in Sudan continue to oppose hikes in tuition, registration, and examination fees. The Unified Doctors Office called increased study fees “unfair”.

The Engineering Students Coordinating Committee from the University of Sudan submitted two official complaints to the judiciary on Tuesday. They condemned the university’s decision to raise registration fees and suspend classes after students refused to pay the raised tuition fees. Several parents are also reportedly filing complaints about the university administration to the courts. The committee further warned of further “escalatory legal actions until our right to study has been realised.”

“We attached all the documents required by lawyers to prove the eligibility of our grievances and challenge the eligibility of the administration’s decision,” according to the statement.

On Monday, students staged a protest at the University of Sudan Southern Campus to reject the increase in tuition fees. Students at the College of Engineering and Technical Studies continued to boycott their exams to protest some of their peers being unable to complete the registration process for exams, due to an increase in fees.

Students at Khartoum University closed El Jami’a (University) Street, in the centre of the city, on the same day. The students also protested increases in tuition fees.

At the University of Khartoum, the Neutral Students Group submitted an official memorandum demanding the university to cancel fee increases. In a joint statement, various student associations of the University of Khartoum condemned “the university administration’s failure to respond to our demands for a reduction in tuition fees for 2023.”

University administration reportedly issued a decision to investigate four students for their involvement in the demonstration against the recent tuition price hike last week.

Doctors’ statement

The Unified Doctors Office rejected the increased fees for training, examinations, and theses by the Council of Medical Specialties said in a statement on Tuesday. They called on the Council to freeze the decision, calling it “unfair.” The statement indicated that the Council has not considered the economic situation of the trainees.

The statement further criticised the Ministry of Finance’s “disregard for the deterioration of the working conditions of medics, lack of housing, and extended power cuts in Khartoum.”

Minister Jibril Ibrahim said on his Facebook page last week that the role of the Finance Ministry is limited to approving taxes only. “The Ministry of Finance has nothing to do with levies imposed in localities and states and their methods of collecting them, just as it bears no responsibility for the increased university fees,” he stated.

“Fees may not be imposed unless approved by the Legislative Council or a joint committee made up of members of the Sovereignty Council and the Council of Ministers,” he told Radio Dabanga on January 5.

“This is stipulated in the Constitutional Charter of August 2019. However, since the coup d’état [of October 2021], both the Sovereignty Council and the Council of Ministers do not have legal status anymore. Any administrative court can cancel the fees because they were not enacted by law,” he explained.

Source: Radio Dabanga