Day: May 23, 2023

Sudan’s latest ceasefire now appears to be holding despite early breaches of the deal.

It is the first truce to have been formally agreed and signed by both sides, but there were reports of airstrikes and clashes in the capital, Khartoum, as it came into force on Monday evening.

In the cities of Omdurman and Bahri which adjoin the capital, people said they had heard gunfire.

The ceasefire will enable the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid.

Hours before the latest truce was due to begin, the head of the paramilitary RSF, General Hamdan Dagalo, issued a belligerent statement urging his troops to defeat the national army and win the war.

Source: BBC

More air strikes and clashes have been reported in Sudan, dampening hopes for the latest attempt at a ceasefire in the conflict-hit country.

A new seven-day truce officially began at 21:45 local time (19:45 GMT).

But witnesses have already spoken of further hostilities in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.

The violence began five weeks ago, triggered by a power struggle between the leaders of the regular army and a paramilitary faction.

Previous attempts to achieve a lasting pause in hostilities in the north-east African country have been shaky or collapsed.

Warring factions agree week-long truce

Why has fighting broken out in Sudan?

There was renewed optimism for this new ceasefire, which came about following formal talks that were brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The new deal would be enforced by a “ceasefire monitoring mechanism”, according to a US-Saudi statement issued on Saturday which acknowledged the previous failures to secure peace.

But the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) issued a belligerent message just hours before the agreement was due to become effective.

Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – better known as Hemedti – was recorded in an audio message saying his troops would not retreat “until we end this coup”.

Khartoum resident Moe Faddoul told the BBC that minutes into the ceasefire, there were two heavy air strikes west of the city, where the military’s main airbase is.

“The house shook where I’m staying,” he said.

There were also skirmishes, but the fighting had since stopped, Mr Faddoul added.

He described the city as “almost a ghost town”.

Most residents had fled, no cars were on roads, and only a few people were walking to look for basic necessities, Mr Faddoul said.

Meanwhile, civilians told Reuters they that had heard firing in Omdurman and Bahri, Khartoum’s twin cities. But they did not report major violations of the truce.

Conflict broke out in Khartoum on 15 April following days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.

The key dispute is between Gen Dagalo and the head of the military, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – who has been Sudan’s de-facto leader since President Omar al-Bashir was toppled in 2019.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting and the UN has warned of a worsening situation in a country where a huge number of people already relied on aid before the conflict.

More than a million people have fled their homes since the conflict began.

Source: BBC

A family who fled the fighting in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, say they have been stuck on the border with Egypt for nearly a month waiting for visas.

Nakapi Samba, a 24-year-old university student, arrived in Wadi Halfa with with her three siblings and parents on 30 April.

The family, originally from South Sudan, have been living in a mosque since the end of April as they wait for their visas to be granted.

“The situation here is not easy. We are laying on the floor. There is no access for good water,” Ms Samba told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

With no income, she says her family will soon run out of money – and everything comes at a price in border town, including going to the toilet.

“If you want something you have to pay for it.

“We can buy things in the market but we have no access for firewood to cook. We only buy ready food and snacks.

“The money [my parents] have saved won’t be enough for us for a long time. Only God can help us.”

Source: BBC

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Hasan Khaddour said Monday that Syria is part to most International pacts on prevention of all forms of crime, adding that Syria is keen on modernizing and developing its national laws in line with these international agreements.

“Based on that fact, the Syrian government has issued a package of laws that included combating human trafficking, anti-money laundering, preventing the financing of terrorism, kidnapping, detaining freedom, anti-cybercrime, banking secrecy, and many other laws,” Khaddour said in a statement at the thirty-second session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

The Ambassador added that President Bashar al-Assad issued law No. 20 for 2022 stipulating the rearrangement of the criminal law acts of the cyber-crime in order to combat the IT crimes.

Khaddour said that the war in Syria and the US-western economic measures caused waves of resident displacement to neighboring territories, a matter that mounted the phenomena of human trafficking, particularly children.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

London, The London-based organization of Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said that British special forces have secretly participated in killing operations since 2011 in at least 19 countries, including Syria, Iraq and other countries.

“Those forces carried out deliberate killings of British citizens in Syria and Iraq and covered up massacres against civilians in Afghanistan,” NOVOSTI news agency quoted the Organization as saying in a report. According to the report, those forces trained terrorists in Syria and provided them with information and helped plan terrorist operations and actively participated in the events in Libya in 2011.

It also noted that in Ukraine, British experts carried out reconnaissance missions and worked with the Americans in training Ukrainian forces. The report added that the countries in which special forces units have been active included Estonia, Iran, Libya, Pakistan and Russia. Mazen Eyon

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency