Day: February 21, 2023

Karrar Askar, a member of the protest committee against gold mining in Dordeib, Red Sea state, accused commanders of the 45th Infantry Brigade of procrastinating with regard to removing the mining plants that are located inside the Dordeib army base. New roadblocks are emerging in solidarity with the protesters.

The blockade of the Port Sudan-Kassala road near Dordeib will continue until the technical report on gold mining plants in the area that use cyanide and mercury is released, the plants are removed, and the brigade’s commander has been transferred, Askar told Radio Dabanga.

“We have been wondering how it is possible that mining plants have been established inside an army base, and why the army diverges from its real tasks and sets up commercial enterprises instead,” the activist said.

‘We have been wondering […] why the army diverges from its real tasks and sets up commercial enterprises instead’

He also explained that technical experts have arrived in the gold mining areas “to brief those involved about the dangers of cyanide and mercury pose to humans, animals, and the environment”.

Concerned local residents and activists have been protesting the presence of these plants that treat gold mining waste (called karta in Sudan), which contains poisonous cyanide and mercury, in open basins since the start of this month by blocking the Port Sudan-Kassala road.

The roadblock was extended last week to protest the lack of reaction from authorities. The protesters demanded the mixing plants be taken down, but the military has been slow to proceed with this.

Last week, a journalist told Radio Dabanga that the command of the 45th Infantry Brigade refused to allow a delegation of protesters to visit the military offices to ask about a previous agreement to dismantle the mixers.

She explained that the brigade command kept some of the mixers and did not dismantle them. Mixers are machines used to process gold.

Red Sea state has been witnessing tensions for months as residents protest the behaviour of gold mining companies and fear that their drinking water supply is at risk.

Solidarity roadblocks

Protesters closed the Port Sudan-Khartoum highway in Haya, north of Dordeib, on Sunday afternoon in solidarity with the anti-gold mining protests in Dordeib, member of the Dordeib protest committee Ibrahim Taher told Radio Dabanga on Sunday.

He said that environmental activists in Sinkat would also join the protests yesterday and block the road.

Taher further reported that a delegation of the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources visited the mining plants based at the site of 45th Infantry Brigade site and promised to release a final report on the effects on the environment within 72 hours.

He confirmed that one of the mixing plants inside the military zone has not yet been dismantled.

Northern state protest

The sit-in in the Abu Sari gold mine area, north of Delgo town in Northern State, entered its fourth week on Sunday. People are protesting against the gold mining activities carried out at the mine by a Turkish company that uses mercury and cyanide.

Activist Wael El Imam told Radio Dabanga that the sit-in in Shayakha Abu Sari that began with the closure of the well that supplies the company’s factory with water, is continuing until the demand of the residents of the area, the removal of the plant, is met.

RSF and Wagner

The Darfur General Coordination of Refugees and Displaced People accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Russian Wagner Group of mining gold in the area of Tur Kelemi village in Central Darfur.

The village residents fled attacks on their homes years ago and now live in the Tur Kelemi camp near the state capital Zalingei.

Adam Rujal, the spokesperson for the General Coordination, said in a statement yesterday that these lands belong to the displaced and that mining gold without their consent is considered a form of humiliation and insult.

Rujal holds the Central Darfur authorities responsible for excavations in the areas of the displaced and considers it a “legalised theft of resources”.

He demanded an immediate cessation of this exploration. “We categorically reject the prospecting for gold and other minerals, except under a legitimate civil government after a just and comprehensive peace has been achieved.”

The RSF have a contentious presence in Darfur as they grew out of the Janjaweed militias that are largely held responsible for the Darfur Genocide. They also control large parts of the Sudanese gold market.

Former Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal seized control of the Jebel Amer gold mining area in July 2015 and profited from vast gold sales. Sources claim that RSF Commander Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ was behind Hilal’s detention before taking over the operation of the mines and capturing large parts of Sudan’s gold market. He has family ties that link him to El Junaid Gold Mining Company.

In 2020, the government took over control of the Jebel Amer gold mines. Last year, however, CNN published an investigation disclosing how “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine” with the complicity of Sudanese military rulers, especially the RSF.

The Russian Wagner Group has also been accused of being behind attacks on gold miners in South Darfur.

Elsewhere in Central Darfur, Director of Zalingei locality Sufyan Mousa announced the immediate cessation of mining activity and the withdrawal of all existing machinery in the area of Dar Katya.

He referred to a directive from the acting Central Darfur governor following complaints from two departments of the Dar Katya administration.

Kleptocracy

Various areas in Sudan have recently witnessed protests against mining activities, often because of the use of highly toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide but also because of the lack of opportunities the companies provide to the local community.

In a recent report tracing anti-mining protests by Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker (STPT), respected Sudan conflict resolution analyst Dr Suliman Baldo called out “the capture of local resources by a powerful and kleptocratic central state and its commercial partners”.

In September 2019, Director of Exploration of the Sudanese Mining Resources Company Naji Mahmoud also claimed that there are 424 mining companies in Sudan that are owned by members of the ousted Al Bashir regime.

Source: Radio Dabanga

There were several sceptical reactions to the signing of the new Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) implementation matrix. Governor of the Darfur Region Minni Minawi’s speech at the signing ceremony was criticised and described as ‘useless’ after he blamed the international community for the lacking JPA implementation.

Yagoub Furi, head of the Darfur Displaced and Refugee Camps Coordination, has expressed scepticism regarding the importance of the updated matrix for the implementation of the 2020 JPA that was signed on Sunday.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Furi attributed the non-implementation of the JPA to “the lack of real will and desire of the signatory parties”. He referred to the fact that the Darfur displaced were not involved in the JPA, “which is not surprising as they [signatories] are fighting for over chairs and abandoned the real issues”.

Blaming the international community and mediators is useless, he said, referring to statements made by Governor of the Darfur Region Minni Minawi.

Furi called on the signatories, the Sudanese government, and the 14 rebel movements that make up the Sudan Revolutionary Front, “to order their forces to stop killing, looting, raping, and otherwise assaulting the people of Darfur”.

Writer and political analyst Mohamed Hereika was also critical of Minawi’s speech and described it as “useless”.

Minawi spoke about the ‘international community’s failure’ to fulfil the JPA and the absence of the?UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan?(UNITAMS) in the process.

Hereika explained that the international community and UNITAMS supported and supervised the signing of the Framework Agreement on December 5 last year.

“Minawi chose not to sign the Framework Agreement, and before that, he rebelled against the international community by supporting the October 2021 coup, which he is still doing,” he told Radio Dabanga.

Tut Galuak, head of the South Sudanese team that mediated the peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front, also holds the signatories to the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement responsible for the lacking implementation of the agreement to date, not the international community.

During his address to the official opening of the workshop last week, Galuak said “you left the displaced and stayed in Khartoum”.

Last year, the displaced lamented that ‘not even 1% of the Juba Peace Agreement’ had been implemented. Little progress has been made since.

Inability

Journalist and political analyst Ali El Dali said that “the inability to implement the matrix of the JPA was more than evident during the Juba workshop.

“The JPA can only be implemented by a civilian government that is recognised by the international community,” he said. “The military?coup d’état of October 25 was the main reason for not implementing the original matrix.”

El Dali did add that “most of the provisions of the JPA need money, which can only be provided by the international community”.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The eastern Sudanese parties to the Eastern Sudan Track protocol of the JPA, the Beja Congress in Opposition and the United Popular Front for Liberation and Justice, also signed the updated Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) Implementation Matrix in Juba on Sunday. The mainstream High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains headed by Hadendowa Nazir Sayed Tirik rejects the matrix.

Hamrour Hussein, leading member of the United Popular Front, told Radio Dabanga that the suspension of the protocol by Lt Gen Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, at the request of opponents in late 2021, is “a political decision that has nothing to do with the implementation of the agreement”.

He stressed the need to implement the JPA provisions related to the region’s right to have its share of the gold revenues and other resources, for which a percentage was agreed on.

More than $300 million is to be allocated for the development of eastern Sudan, which consists of Red Sea state, Kassala, and El Gedaref.

At least 14 per cent of civil servants in the region are to be eastern Sudanese as well, and eastern Sudanese students should be exempted from paying university fees, the JPA stipulates.

Beja Nazir Council rejection

The mainstream High Council of Beja Nazirs and Independent Chieftains headed by Hadendowa Nazir Sayed Tirik renewed its categorical rejection of the protocol, including the updated implementation matrix.

The Beja Nazirs Council was not involved in the Juba peace negotiations in 2019 and 2020. The Council has opposed the Eastern Sudan Track?protocol since it was first agreed upon during the peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance in Juba in February 2020.

Karrar Askar, Secretary of the Youth Forum of the Beja Nazirs Council, told Radio Dabanga that the Eastern Sudan Track protocol is “an entry point for the return of affiliates of the former regime” of ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir.

The council demands the cancellation of the protocol and a discussion on governance, power, and wealth sharing in eastern Sudan in a separate negotiating platform. “Saying that eastern Sudan will gain much through the protocol can only be called political arrogance,” Askar said.

Source: Radio Dabanga

A speech by Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo on Sunday sparked widespread reactions, including speculations about the split between the Sudan Armed forces (SAF) and Hemeti’s RSF.

Hemeti acknowledged that the October 2021 military coup was wrong, in his speech at a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday, and admitted that the coup has become a gateway for affiliates of the former regime to return.?

These words sound perhaps surprising given the fact that Hemeti was one of the most important people behind the coup, together with SAF Commander and Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan.

Hemeti’s statements reportedly came against the background of the recent speeches by El Burhan in which he pledged his commitment to the formation of a civilian government and ‘integrating the RSF militia into the SAF’.

Muffled struggle

Writer and political analyst Mohamed Hereika said that the contents of the speech “cannot be read outside the context of the conflict within the military establishment, represented by SAF Commander El Burhan and RSF Commander Hemeti”.

He told Radio Dabanga that “the hidden conflict between the two sides surfaced and intensified after the signing of the Framework Agreement, which stipulates the unification of the various military institutions”.

In recent speeches, El Burhan has continuously mentioned the integration of the RSF ‘into the SAF’, rather than speaking about an equal merging or ‘unification’.

“El Burhan, in his recent speeches about merging the army and the RSF, is trying to win over the block of armed movements represented by rebel leaders Jibril Ibrahim and Minni Minawi,” he explained.

‘El Burhan, in his recent speeches about merging the army and the RSF, is trying to win over the block of armed movements represented by rebel leaders Jibril Ibrahim and Minni Minawi’ – Mohamed Hereika

“Whereas Hemeti, through his political manoeuvres, wants to present himself as an opponent against the Islamists and confirm that his political future is radically linked to the Framework Agreement – which El Burhan signed under international pressure and for personal gains.”

Journalist and columnist Haidar El Mukashfi underscored that the integration of the RSF into the army is a demand of the December revolution, not the SAF.

“The merger is included in the Framework Agreement, which was signed by representatives of the military junta, including Hemeti,” he said.

“His speech was clear and confirmed his commitment to the Framework Agreement. El Burhan’s repeated talk about the integration of the RSF can be considered as incitement from Al Bashir supporters, who are seeking to thwart the Framework Agreement by creating strife and conspiracies to achieve a rift between the Rapid Support Forces and the military establishment.”

In his speech, Hemeti accused “elements of the defunct regime of seeking to drive a wedge between the Sudanese army and the RSF”.

Deep split

Other political analysts also pointed to the split between the RSF and the SAF.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, journalist and political analyst, commented on Hemeti’s speech by saying that “it clearly expresses a deep division within the military, which is now surfacing”.

Abdelaziz told Radio Dabanga that, “since the military?coup d’état of October 2021, Hemeti discovered that the coup was only an attempt to restore former officials of the Al Bashir regime to power again”.

Abdelaziz said that the RSF commander’s statements “reveal a big gap between the two sides of the military that seriously widened after elements of the defunct regime began to return to power and regained control over its joints”.

According to the political analyst, “El Burhan seeks to exploit supporters of the former regime to overthrow Hemeti or tame him in order to monopolise power”.

Source: Radio Dabanga