Author: Web Desk

The Ethiopian Prime Minister has accepted the proposal of the East African bloc, IGAD, that South Sudanese President Salva Kiir mediates process to settle the nearly one-year armed conflict with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Presidential Spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said Friday the Ethiopian leader, Abiy Ahmed has officially accepted the proposal of the regional bloc which identified Kiir as a suitable person in the region to mediate the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia.

“The Ethiopian Prime Minister has now accepted the proposal by the IGAD which asked President Salva Kiir Mayardit to mediate the talk between the Government of Ethiopia and brothers from Tigray,” said Ateny.

Speaking to the UN Radio in Juba Miraya FM on Friday, he pointed out that the process would be launched soon as Prime Minister Abiy took the oath of office on 4 October for a second term after the elections.

President Salva Kiir was officially informed of the acceptance to mediate the talks by Prime Minister himself when he attended the inauguration ceremony this week,” said Ateny without indicating when the talks would begin.

In September, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who is also the IGAD Chair said Kiir was the right person for the job, pointing to his personal connection and relations with Ethiopian leaders.

“The Chair of IGAD requested President Kiir to go to Ethiopia believing that he is the right person to mediate the Ethiopian conflict. Hamdok said Kiir was the right person to mediate talks between Addis Ababa and the regional government in Tigray,” South Sudan Information Minister Michael Makuei, told media in September.

Hamdok later confirmed he had asked Kiir to mediate the talks between the Ethiopian rivals.

“The president accepted the request and now preparations are underway so that this mediation process starts,” Ateny said in a separate interview.

The Ethiopian northern region has been wracked by violence since November 2020, when Abiy sent troops into Tigray to contain activities of the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

His response resulted in a full-scale conflict that displaced some 2.1 million people in Tigray. Also, there are 250,000 people in the Amhara region and 112,000 IDPs according to the local authorities and the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It is not clear if the rebels would join the negotiating table.

Last July, the regional armed group called to negotiate a ceasefire agreement asked first for the withdrawal of the Amhara militiamen and Eritrean soldiers from the region.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A group of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) led by Minni Minnawi called to stop dealing with the ruling coalition in Sudan until its reorganization and conclusion of an agreement on the representation of its membership.

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok is making efforts to reconcile between the FFC components and the reintegration of a faction led by Minnawi.

On Wednesday, Hamdok briefed the FFC leadership about his contacts with the Sudan Liberation Movement- Minni Minnawi and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Gibril Ibrahim and joined this group recently.

A statement issued after the meeting stated that the ruling coalition welcomed the good offices made by the Prime Minister to reunite the groups that struggled against the former regime and expressed their willingness to reunite the FFC.

However, Suleiman Sandal JEM Political Secretary in the early hours of Friday disclosed on his Facebook page that they sent a letter to the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and the Prime Minister asking them to reconsider dealing with the ruling coalition until the reunification of the coalition.

We requested “the Sovereign Council and the Council of Ministers to stop any political or executive dealings with the Freedom and Change group, which hijacked the government, until they return to the founding platform,” said Sandal.

Hamdok’s meeting with the FFC leaders came after a series of meetings with the military component to settle strife between the two parties following the coup attempt of September 21.

The Council of Ministers had tasked a committee led by Hamdok to meet the military component in order to resolve the conflict.

Differences between the FFC and the military component, from one part, and within the two factions of the coalition, on the other part, coincide with protests led by a tribal group in eastern Sudan.

A Beja group calls for the cancel an agreement for peace in eastern Sudan, but now they are demanding that the army taking over the reins of power in Sudan.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The Deputy-Chairman of the Sovereign Council dismissed allegations that they had demanded the removal of some civilian members from the Council but announced their refusal to leave the control of the police forces to the civilian government.

The military component in the collegial presidency suspended the meetings of the Sovereign Council after a public dispute between its chairman, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, and its official spokesman and member, Mohamed al-Faki.

In addition, there were press reports claiming that the military component demanded al-Faki’s removal from the Council.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, “Hemedti,” on Thursday denied demanding to dismiss any of the civilian members of the Sovereign Council.

“This is a baseless lie. People fabricate false reports,” said.

Hemetti made his remarks before a delegation of Sudanese teachers supervising the Sudanese certificate exam on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day,

In a speech to the teachers’ delegation, which he posted on his Facebook page, he further stressed that the current crisis is not due to the imminent rotation of the Sovereign Council chairmanship to civilians.

In response to a statement by the ruling civilian coalition, he added they would not hand over the police to the civilian-led government.

“We will only hand over the police and the intelligence agency to an elected government,” he said.

According to the Constitutional Document governing the transitional period, the police is under the control of the civilian cabinet that co-chairs the intelligence service with the military.

Hemetti wondered why they want to control the two security agencies while until recently they attacked it.

He pointed out that the General Intelligence Service demonstrated a rare efficiency to fight terrorist cells.

Source: Sudan Tribune

The Central Bank of South Sudan has frozen accounts of advocacy groups in response to its involvement in the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), which called for peaceful protests for regime change.

The October 6th letter, entitled Directive to Block the Bank Accounts of Organisation Connected to PCCA, seen by the Sudan Tribune, directed all commercial banks operating in South Sudan to block bank accounts of organizations connected to People’s Coalition for Civil Action.

“In reference to the above-mentioned subject, you are hereby directed to block all the bank accounts of the below organizations with immediate effect”, reads a letter signed by Moses Makur Deng, Director General at the bank responsible for Statistics and research and banking supervision.

Deng directed all managing directors of all commercial banks to block the bank of counts of four pro-democracy groups supporting transparency and accountability in the country.

The four groups are Sudd Institut, Okay Africa Foundation, Organisation for Responsive Governance and Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance.

The civil society groups denounced the “bankrupt political system” in South Sudan and called for peaceful protests for the resignation of President Salva Kiir and his First Deputy Riek Machar.

However, the nationwide peaceful protests of 30 August failed to materialize due to the massive deployment of security forces and preventive arrests across the country.

Amnesty International, last September, condemned the wave of repression after the arrest of civil society activists and a politician and the closure of a radio station and an academic think-tank.

Source: Sudan Tribune