Day: March 7, 2023

Gold miners in Red Sea state and Blue Nile state are protesting the decision of the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources to pursue a fivefold increase in the fees of a 100kg sack of rocks containing gold ore at the gates of the mining markets. The miners threaten to escalate their protests if authorities do not back down.

Miners in the area of Wadi El Oshar in Haya also threatened go on strike if the responsible authorities do not back down from their decision, freelance journalist Abdallah Elnoor reported to Radio Dabanga.

The Red Sea state Miners’ Union announced the closure of goldmining markets in Jebeit and Haya in protest against the decision of the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources to increase the fees per 100kg sack of rocks from SDG400 to SDG2,000.

Radio Dabanga spoke with union leader Adarob El Hasan, who accused the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources and several private mining companies of exploiting the mine workers and seeking to get rid of them with the aim of controlling the mining areas.

He told Radio Dabanga that the mineral resources company, presided by Mubarak Ardol, has also proceeded to close all the entrances and exits of the mining markets and to keep only one door in order to control the mining outlets.

The decision will lead to the collapse of mining in the region and the displacement of the simple people who support their families with this profession, El Hasan said.

The miners work for the private mining companies but also try to earn more by searching for gold themselves, Elnoor explained.

El Hasan further explained that Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources approved only 7% for the development of the Red Sea state from the state’s resources.

The miners’ resist the company’s decisions and the union leader said: “We will not allow them to mine in these areas. We will guard all gates and close them”.

Red Sea state has recently witnessed significant tensions around the behaviour of mining companies and mining practices in which highly toxic chemicals are used. Local residents fear that their drinking water supply is at risk and professionals have warned of a looming environmental and health disaster.

Basins with mining waste (called karta in Sudan), in which gold ore is dumped containing heavy metals such as admium, lead, zinc, copper, arsenic, selenium, and mercury or cyanide, form a long-term hazard second only to nuclear waste dumps.

Unfair

Miners and mine owners in Abu Hamad, River Nile state, also protested the 500 per cent increase in fees.

Waleed Shaw, Secretary-General of the Mining Sector of the Free Businesses Union in Abu Hamad, described the fivefold increase in fees as “unfair”.

Abu Hamad market is one of the largest mining markets in Africa. “The decision to raise the fees will affect about five million miners,” he explained.

‘The decision to raise the fees will affect about five million miners’

“The fees will lead to the exit of a number of miners,” Shaw said, “as they already live in dire conditions due to the lack of services and security”.

The local union leader threatened to escalate their protests “if the decision is not reversed” and predicted that “all gold miners in Sudan will lay down their tools in protest against the ridiculous new fees”.

Politics and smuggling

Shaw said that the daily reap of gold is estimated at about $0.6 billion per day. However, he accused authorities of maintaining illegal trade in gold, pointing to “certain sides that contribute to the smuggling of gold, including the Sudanese Company for Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Energy and Mining”.

Sudan is the second largest gold producer in Africa and gold is its largest export commodity. The production however is often driven by unregulated, artisanal (individual subsistence) mining, and routine gold smuggling across international borders is a constant problem.

Money made through smuggling does not end up in the national treasury and will not be invested in developments to benefit Sudan’s inhabitants

Radio Dabanga reported last year that it is estimated that between 50 per cent and 80 per cent of Sudan’s gold is smuggled out of the country. It is also known that proceeds have been used to finance the internal conflict.

Seven months ago, 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, who took power in a coup in October 2021.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The Central Khartoum Criminal Court dismissed the charges against eight young men accused of killing intelligence officer Mirghani El Jeili yesterday due to ‘gross errors and irregularities’. They were released immediately, after having been imprisoned for months.

Cheers erupted inside and around the courtroom after the verdict was read out. Supporters, who gathered in front of the court building that lies within the Institute of Judicial Sciences since the early morning, carried the released detainees on their shoulders in celebration.

The court said that the investigation procedures contained gross errors and irregularities.

During the court sessions, which began in October last year, the court heard 17 people accused of killing or being an accomplice in the killing of intelligence officer Mirghani El Jeili in March last year. The prosecution detained 25 more people during the handling of the case before dismissing charges against 17 of them.

Charges were upheld against eight activists, and they stood trial in court where they have now been acquitted.

The released suspects are Hossam El Sayad, Gasem Haseeb, Sowereldahab Abulazayem, Musab Ahmed Mohamed ‘Sango’, Hamza Mahjoub, Khaled Mamoun, Sharafeldin Abulmajod, and Michael Deng.

‘Fabricated and malicious’

Lawyer Igbal Ahmed, a member of the defence team for suspect Hossam El Sayad, told Radio Dabanga that the judge dismissed the charges against the defendants for lack of sufficient evidence and described the cases as “fabricated and malicious”.

Defence lawyer Rana Abdelghaffar also told Radio Dabanga also that “the charges against active revolutionaries were fabricated to keep them away from the revolutionary movement”.

‘The charges against active revolutionaries were fabricated to keep them away from the revolutionary movement’ – Rana Abdelghaffar

She explained out that one of the witnesses was forced to give a false statement under torture and detention.

Lawyers said that the defendants were subjected to moral, psychological, and physical abuse and indicated that they could file complaints against the investigators who fabricated the charges.

Revolution as peace

Lawyer Nasreldin Yousef said that the acquittal of Hossam El Sayad and his companions can be considered “a victory for the revolution and its peace”.

He told Radio Dabanga that the public prosecution is targeting the revolution and attempts to stigmatise the revolution as ‘violent’ and its activists as ‘enemies of the peace’.

“The court’s decision confirms the peacefulness of the revolution and deals a fatal blow to the promoters of its ‘non-peacefulness’.”

He expressed his regret that the activists spent a long period in prison without any justification.

‘We were tortured and faced fabricated charges of crimes like theft, murder, and rape because of our influence on the street’ – Gasem Haseeb

Released Gasem Haseeb told Radio Dabanga that the long period of detention was painful. “We were tortured and faced fabricated charges of crimes like theft, murder, and rape because of our influence on the street.”

Case of Brig Bereima

Fellow activist Sharafeldin added that “we are waiting for the release of Tupac and his companions so that our joy will be complete”.

Mohamed Adam (better known by his nickname Tupac) and three other young men are currently in court on a similar charge of killing police Brigadier Ali Bereima, but police reports showed inconsistencies and the detainees were subject to severe torture and mistreatment whilst in prison.

The court in Khartoum heard Prosecutor Mohamed Zein on the case on Sunday. Waleed Ezeldin, defence lawyer for Musab El Shareef, one of the four young demonstrators accused of the murder, said the charges against El Shareef were read and that El Shareef will testify next Sunday.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Rapporteur of the Juba Peace Mediation Team Dhieu Mathok said that the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) is met with many challenges, including the lack of consensus, financial challenges, disputes and divisions amongst the JPA signatories, and the proliferation of arms in Sudan.

Mathok told the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that the implementation of the October 2020 Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) requires “a healthy, conflict-free atmosphere” and referred to the widespread presence of arms in Sudan.

The rapporteur warned of the consequences of not collecting weapons. “The weapons must return to stores for the purpose of practising democracy.”

Waiting

Holdout rebel leaders Abdelaziz El Hilu, leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N El Hilu) in South Kordofan, and Abdelwahid El Nur, head of the mainstream Sudan Liberation Movement in Darfur, are currently in Juba for peace talks.

Mathok said that the rebel leaders are in Juba ‘waiting for the formation of a civilian government’ and ‘then entering into dialogue’.

The SPLM-N El Hilu and Forces for Freedom and Change-Democratic Block recently signed a declaration on their envisioned formation of a transitional government. Both parties have previously refused to sign the Framework Agreement.

Khartoum workshop

The South Sudanese mediator explained that the Khartoum workshop on the new JPA implementation matrix, which took place this weekend, is making the results of the Juba workshop ’owned’ by the executive bodies and institutions concerned with implementing the agreement, whether they are ministers, managers, or agents of institutions.

Mahmoud Koreina, a leading member of the Sudan Liberation Movement split-off faction under the leadership of Minni Minawi, said that the two-day Khartoum workshop was set up to explain the updated JPA implementation matrix to the institutions that are to implement the matrix.

“The Khartoum workshop concluded with specific recommendations, including those related to sovereign and administrative decisions,” he said.

Koreina told Radio Dabanga that they handed copies of the updated matrix to all relevant authorities responsible for the implementation and pointed to “the apparent weakness in the dissemination of the JPA”.

The Ministry of Higher Education told the workshop participants that the issue of exempting Darfur students from tuition fees, as decided in the agreement, lies within the competence of universities, which are independent and can make their own decision. The ministry does, however, intend to sit with the Ministry of Finance to discuss how to implement the decision.

Koreina said that all parties have expressed their willingness to implement the agreement. “It will be included in the programmes of ministries and institutions and their future plans.”

The implementation of the peace agreement faces great challenges, Mathok said, including the lack of consensus among the Sudanese themselves, financial challenges, and disputes and divisions within the rebel movements that signed the JPA.

He pointed out that they, as South Sudanese mediators, are present only as facilitators and that the workshop was organised by Sudan’s National Peace Commission.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The leadership of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has made several statements referring to justice for pro-democracy activists. Commander Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo urged for the trial of the police officer accused of killing a protester to be ‘fair, transparent, and public’ whilst his brother, Deputy Commander Abdelrahim Dagalo, said that the RSF will not allow the killing of protesters or detention of politicians ‘from today on’.

Hemeti, who is also Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, met with the representative of the Public Prosecutor, Justice Mohamed Mustafa, in the presence of Acting Director General of the Police Lt Gen Nasreldin Abdelrahim in Khartoum on Saturday after his return from the United Arab Emirates.

During the meeting, Hemeti directed that the trial regarding the killing of 16-year-old protester Ibrahim Majzoub in Khartoum last week be fair, transparent, and public. He stressed the RSF’s commitment to following the procedures according to the law.

Mazjoub was killed during pro-democracy protests and footage in which a police officer can be seen shooting at the 16-year-old from close range was widely shared on social media.

RSF Deputy Commander and brother of Hemeti Abdelrahim Dagalo said the following during his address in the Friendship Hall in Khartoum: “We say to those in power: hand over power to the people without turning around”.

“From today on, we will not allow the killing of young demonstrators, nor will we allow any detention of politicians.”

Many political opponents of the military authorities have been arrested or detained since the October 2021 coup, in which the RSF was involved.

Many activists have also been and faced fabricated charges.

SAF-RSF split

It seems that the RSF has recently changed course amidst rumours of a split between the Sudan Armed Forces, headed by Sovereignty Council Chairman Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, and Hemeti’s RSF.

Hemeti gave a speech in which he acknowledged that the October 2021 military coup, led by El Burhan and Hemeti, was wrong and admitted that the coup has become a gateway for affiliates of the former regime to return.?

During the speech, he said he will not hesitate “to return to the right track” and withdraw from political power.

Enemy of the revolution

After the speech, the resistance committees stated that they still consider “Hemeti an enemy of the revolution” and “the RSF a militia that must be disbanded and brought to trial for the crimes it committed against the revolutionaries and other people”.

“They are controlling the country’s resources, such as gold and other minerals and the export of livestock, and use the revenues to wage wars in the country.”

Hemeti is a controversial figure and his RSF is held responsible for many atrocities in Sudan, especially in Darfur.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The head of the Joint Monitoring & Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) has said that access to power, inclusivity, and effective participation for women in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement remains a challenge.

Amb. Charles Tai Gituai while speaking during a workshop convened by RJMEC in collaboration with the ceasefire monitoring body (CTSAMVM) and the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said that even though Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on the role of women in conflict resolution and peace processes, which calls for the adoption of gender perspectives, especially of women’s and girls’ needs in peace agreements, and their implementation mechanisms, and for the protection and respect of

He noted that lack of proper access to power, inclusivity, and effective participation in the peace process and gender bias, continue to hinder the advancement of women in South Sudan.

“Unless such challenges are adequately addressed, perspectives and concerns of women will be overlooked in politics as well as in the implementation of the Roadmap of the peace agreement,” AMb. Gituai said. “This, therefore, calls for women to be respected and not to be ignored or undermined, and women should be assertive in making their voices heard.”

He called for the inclusion of women in key institutions such as the Political Parties Council, the National Elections Commission, and the National Constitutional Review Commission.

Also related to the Constitution-making process, he said, is the establishment of the Preparatory Sub-Committee for the National Constitutional Conference, and recruitment of the Constitutional Drafting Committee.

According to Amb. Gituai, the gender provisions of the Agreement enhances the inclusion and empowerment of women, as they cover the participation and representation of women in decision-making positions, in all governmental bodies, and institutions and mechanisms that drive political, economic, social and judicial reforms, as well as the constitution-making process.

“This remains equally valid and important in the Roadmap,” he said.

The Agreement mandates a 35 percent level of women’s participation in such bodies, and the nominees to these bodies need to reflect the gender, political, social, ethnic, religious, and regional diversity of South Sudan.

“RJMEC takes these considerations very seriously, and as we conduct our monitoring and evaluation of the peace agreement, we will ensure that these parameters get the proper level of attention,” Amb. Gituai said. “It is evident that the letter and spirit of the gender provisions in the Revitalized Peace Agreement are deep and far-reaching, and aimed at creating a conducive environment for women in South Sudan to actively participate in the political, economic, and social life of their country.”

The workshop brought together over 60 South Sudanese women under the theme “Understanding the Roadmap and women’s participation in the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).”

Source: Radio Tamazuj