Day: February 12, 2023

Both factions of the High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains refuse to participate in the conference on governance in eastern Sudan starting in Khartoum today.

The mainstream Beja Nazirs Council under the leadership of Sayed Tirik considers the conference organised by the AU-IGAD-UNITAMS Trilateral Mechanism in cooperation with the signatories to the Framework Agreement “pouring oil on the fire”.

In a press statement on Saturday, Taha Faki, Secretary General of the Council, said that the conference in Khartoum “limits the voice of the eastern Sudanese by deciding on them without including them in the preparations”.

He lauded the inter-Sudanese dialogue conference organised by the Egyptian government in Cairo last week, praising “the role of Egypt in providing the appropriate environment for the people of eastern Sudan to a dialogue without interference from others”.

During the Cairo conference, “the parties agreed on recommendations that to a large extent satisfy the aspirations and desires of the people of the East”.

Faki further said that a briefing on the outputs of the Cairo conference and the Beja Nazirs Council’s position will be held in the Friendship Hall on Tuesday.

The Beja Nazirs categorically reject the Eastern Sudan Track protocol, included in the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) signed by the Sudanese government and a number of rebel movements in the south Sudanese capital on October 3, 2020. At the time, the Beja Nazirs Council was not included in the negotiations on the eastern Sudanese region.

Not much of the JPA, including the Eastern Sudan protocol, has been implemented so far.

The Khartoum conference on governance in eastern Sudan is the third dialogue in which the signatories of the Framework Agreement and other stakeholders discuss critical issues in order to reach a consensus on the subjects. The outcomes of the dialogues are supposed to lead to a final agreement with the military junta on the upcoming transitional period and the formation of a new civilian government of technocrats.

Members of the Forces for Freedom and Change-Democratic Block (FFC-CC) alliance oppose the Framework Agreement, supported by the international community, and welcomed the initiative of Egypt in early January to hold an alternative conference on the Sudanese crisis in Cairo.

The Beja Nazirs Council-Tirik wing repeated its threats to announce?self-determination?for eastern Sudan if?the?government does not respond to their demands for a separate platform and development in the marginalised eastern region.

The Beja Nazirs Council split-off faction chaired by Ibrahim Adarob as well demands the cancellation of the Eastern Sudan Protocol of the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, but refused to take part in both Cairo and Khartoum conferences.

Sayed Abu Amna, Political Secretary of the Adarob wing said in a press statement on Friday that the faction insists on “a special negotiating platform”.

He stated that they presented their vision to the Trilateral Mechanism and mainstream FFC-Central Council organising the conferences in Khartoum. “If they include these points in the Framework Agreement, we will support it.”

Source: Radio Dabanga

The recently displaced residing in Ed Damazin, capital of Blue Nile state, are experiencing severe food insecurity, causing some to return to their villages, despite the poor security situation which prompted them to leave in the first place.

Activist Salah Ed Dalil told Radio Dabanga from Ed Damazin that the food and living conditions of the displaced people in the city are “tragic”.

He called on the Blue Nile government to intervene, saying that “security assistance needs to be provided for returnees” and on Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) to direct relief organisations in providing much-needed assistance to the region.

According to Fatima Mousa, a displaced woman living in Medina 9 in Wad El Mahi, the government of the Blue Nil region “demanded that they voluntarily return to their homes”. She condemned “the callousness of their request”, due to the fact that she and others like her, “lost everything they owned because of arson and looting”.

Intercommunal violence in the northern part of Blue Nile region in July and September last year led to the displacement of at least 66,000 people.

Food insecurity

Humanitarian organisations have highlighted acute food insecurity across Sudan. In reports, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan asserts three months ago that the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Sudan will rise to 15.8 million next year, equivalent to about a third of the population, which represents an increase of 1.5 million over this year.

In July last year, Radio Dabanga explained that Sudan’s poverty and food insecurity rates are likely to be significantly higher than those estimated by the country’s authorities and the United Nations (UN).

Cultivation expansion

The director of the Ministry of Agriculture in Khartoum, Sirelkhatim Abdellatif, stated that he plans to expand cultivation in an effort to achieve food security, according to SUNA.

In a press statement, Abdellatif said that the ministry’s plan focuses on increasing irrigation and rain fed areas to “exploit the arable areas in Khartoum state to increase production”.

According to the director’s statement, the ministry’s agricultural endeavour of increasing productive feddans will thoroughly “encourage youth employment”.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Sovereignty Council announced yesterday that the signatories of the Framework Agreement finalised a political declaration outlining the process of how three non-signatories will be integrated into the ongoing political process based on the Framework Agreement, signed by the military and more than 40 pro-democracy parties and groups on December 5 last year.

The non-signatory parties are represented by the Sudan Liberation Movement faction under the leadership of Minni Minawi, the Justice and Equality Movement headed by Jibril Ibrahim, and Jaafar El Mirghani, Vice-President of the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party. They earlier refused to sign the Framework Agreement saying that it does not include their vision.

In a memo released by the council’s press bureau, both the signatory and non-Signatory parties reached their final deliberations after a series of meetings headed by Sudan’s head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, as well as Vice-President of the Sovereignty Council and commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lt Gen Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo.

The statement highlighted the “extensive discussions and high patriotic spirit” that was witnessed during the political declaration’s negotiation.

Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan affirmed his commitment to the Framework Agreement and his cooperation with all involved parties. The junta head also called for his opponents to reach a comprehensive final agreement, in order to pave the way for a transitional civilian government leading the country to free and fair elections, by the end of the two-year transitional period.

International delegation

The news about the political declaration comes after a delegation of special envoys from the United States of America, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, and Germany concluded a joint visit to Khartoum last week with a call to resume civilian leadership for the transition to democracy and a reiteration of their support for the Framework Agreement.

After meeting with a range of Sudanese actors, they concluded their two-day visit with a press conference on Thursday, in which they they urged the Sudanese parties to conduct a comprehensive dialogue on the basis of the Framework Agreement, work to address the root causes of the conflict, and build a stable and prosperous Sudan.

“We urge the parties to deepen and expand their commitment to inclusivity and bring together women, youth, and representatives from all over Sudan to participate in shaping their country’s future,” the envoys said in their joint statement.

The special envoys reiterated their support for the Framework Agreement. It “remains in our view the best basis on which to form a civilian-led transitional government and establish constitutional arrangements for a transitional period that culminates in elections,” the statement read.

*The delegation of envoys includes Acting US Assistant Secretary of State Peter Lord, European Union Envoy to the Horn of Africa Annette Weber, British Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan Robert Fairweather, French Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Frédéric Clavier, Norwegian Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan Jon Anton Johnson, and Thorsten Hutter, Head of the East Africa Division at the German Foreign Office, in addition to the EU, US, UK, Norwegian, French, and German ambassadors to Sudan.

Source: Radio Dabanga