Sudanes Revalotion- info Slogans
Just fall – that is all
The slogan “Just fall – that is all” (تسقط – بس tasquṭ bas) was first used on Twitter and Facebook pages during the protests of 22 December 2018 and has thereafter been widely used.
Freedom, peace and justice
This slogan was the first to be used in downtown Khartoum where demonstrators chanting “freedom, peace and justice” and “revolution is the people’s choice” were met with tear gas. The organizers of this particular march were “professionals, including
We are All Darfur
The slogan “You arrogant racist, we are all Darfur!” was used in Khartoum in response to the targeting of 32 Darfuri students by National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) agents, who alleged they were planning an attack. According to Radio Dabanga, the NISS claimed that they had been trained by the Israeli Mossad to carry out acts of sabotage.The students were arrested at the University of Sennar and were transported to Khartoum, where they subsequently confessed “under duress.” The Darfur Bar Association called for the students to be released.
doctors, engineers, and teachers
Sudanese Revolution -info
The Sudanese Revolution was a major shift of political power in Sudan that started with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which the 11 April 2019 Sudanese coup d’état deposed President Omar al-Bashir after thirty years in power, the 3 June Khartoum massacre took place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that replaced al-Bashir, and in July and August 2019 the TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a Political Agreement and a Draft Constitutional Declaration legally defining a planned 39-month phase of transitional state institutions and procedures to return Sudan to a civilian democracy . In August and September 2019, the TMC formally transferred executive power to a mixed military–civilian collective head of state, the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, and to a civilian prime minister (Abdalla Hamdok) and a mostly civilian cabinet, while judicial power was transferred to Nemat Abdullah Khair, Sudan’s first female Chief Justice. This article mainly covers this eight-month period. See Terminology below for debates on the definition of the “Sudanese Revolution”, which may also be interpreted to include the period during the prime ministership of Abdalla Hamdok, who promised that the transitional period would carry out “the program” of the revolution.
December 2018
The 2018–2019 wave of protests began on 19 December 2018 in response to the tripling of the price of bread in Atbara, then quickly spread to Port Sudan, Dongola and the capital Khartoum. Protestors set fire to the national party headquarters in Atbara and Dongola. Authorities used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to disperse demonstrators, causing dozens of deaths and injuries. The former prime minister, Sadiq al-Mahdi, returned to the country on the same day.
Access to social media and instant messaging was cut on 21 December by the country’s major service providers, with technical evidence collected by the NetBlocks internet observatory and Sudanese volunteers indicating the installation of “an extensive Internet censorship regime”.Curfews were issued across Sudan, with schools closed throughout the country. Darfuri students in Sennar and Khartoum were arrested by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and tortured into confessing membership in the Sudan Liberation Movement in an effort to create a narrative that the protests were race-based. These forced confessions were broadcast on both Sudanese state television and Facebook on 29 December.
January 2019
By 7 January 2019 over 800 anti-government protesters were arrested and 19 people, including security officials, were killed during the protests.
On 9 January, thousands of protesters gathered in the southeastern city of El-Gadarif.
Protests organized by the Sudanese Professionals Association led to a doctor being shot on 17 January, as hospitals were being targeted by security forces.
The erstwhile allies of Bashir, the National Congress Party, announced that it was withdrawing from the government and later called on for a transfer of power to a transitional government, signalling at least that even in the ruling establishment, there was fatigue from the rule of Bashir.
February 2019
A Sudanese sprays a revolutionary slogan at a wall
Media coverage of the protests was strictly controlled by security forces. Al Tayyar began printing blank pages to show the amount of government-censored copy. Other news outlets have seen their entire print run confiscated by the government. The security service (NISS) raided Al Jarida‘s offices again, which has led the latter to stop producing its print version. According to The Listening Post, foreign Arabic-language videographers have been particularly targeted by the government.
A “senior military source” told Middle East Eye that Salah Gosh, head of Sudanese intelligence, had the support of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt to replace al-Bashir as president, citing his private talks with Yossi Cohen at the Munich Security Conference as evidence (15–17 February).
On 22 February, Bashir declared a yearlong state of national emergency, the first in twenty years.Bashir also announced the dissolution of the central governments and the regional governments, and replaced regional governors with military generals. The next day he appointed his chosen successor, Mohamed Tahir Ayala, as Prime Minister and former intelligence chief and current Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf as first vice president. His intelligence chief also announced that he would not seek re-election in 2020 and would resign from the head of the National Congress Party.Ahmed Haroun, also wanted by the ICC for war crimes, replaced Al-Bashir as leader of the National Congress party. Officers from the military and intelligence services were put in charge of provincial governments after the dissolution.
Security forces raided universities in Khartoum and Ombdurman, reportedly beating students with sticks in Khartoum on 24 February.On the same day, al-Bashir issued decrees banning unauthorized demonstrations, prohibiting the illegal trade of fuel and wheat under threat of 10-year prison sentences; banning the “unauthorized circulation of information, photos or documents that belong to the president’s family”; and introducing capital controls on the trade of gold and foreign currency.
7–8 March 2019
On 7 March, protests were organized to honor women for their leading role in the uprising.”You women, be strong” and “This revolution is a women’s revolution” were slogans chanted at several protests.
On 8 March, Omar al-Bashir ordered that all the women who had been arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations be freed.Protestors named a Khartoum neighborhood park (in Burri) after one such woman, who had been sentenced to 20 lashes and one month in prison by an emergency court, then freed on appeal. The sentence of flogging, first introduced during British colonization in 1925, aims at discouraging Sudanese women from political activism.
According to the Democratic Lawyers Alliance, at least 870 people had been tried in the newly-established emergency courts by mid-March.
6–11 April
Alaa Salah leads the protestors in song
On 6 April, days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced to step down to appease Algerian protesters, the Sudanese Professionals Association called for a march to the headquarters of the armed forces. Hundreds of thousands of people answered the call. According to one protester, divisions appeared between the security forces, who “tried to attack the demonstrators coming from the north”, and the military, who “took the demonstrators’ side and fired back. On Sunday, Social media were blocked and the power was cut all over Sudan as the protestors began a sit-in at the military headquarters in Khartoum which continued throughout the week On Monday morning (8 April), the army and the rapid reaction force of the secret services were facing off at the armed forces headquarters in Khartoum.According to the interior minister, there were six deaths, 57 injuries, and 2,500 arrests in Khartoum over the weekend. Police were under orders not to intervene.
Also on Monday, Alaa Salah, a young woman dressed as a kandake, became a symbol of the movement when a photo of her leading the protestors in a chant while standing on top of a car went viral.
11 April: al-Bashir deposed
Anti-Omar al-Bashir revolutionary street stencil in Khartoum.
On 11 April, al-Bashir was ousted from presidency and placed under house arrest by the military The European Union and the United States called for a UN Security Council meeting State media reported that all political prisoners, including anti-Bashir protest leaders, were being released from jail. A curfew was also put in place between 10 pm and 4 am. Despite the imposed curfew, protesters remained on the streets.
12 April – 2 June: negotiations with Transitional Military Council
On the evening of 12 April, the head of the Transitional Military Council in Sudan, Awad Ibn Auf, announced his resignation following intense protests. Ibn Auf said that he had chosen Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army’s inspector-general, to succeed him. The protesters were “jubilant” upon hearing this announcement as he was one of the generals who reached out to the protestors during the sit-in Burhan is also “not known to be implicated in war crimes or wanted by international courts.
On 13 April, talks between the military and the protestors officially started. This came following announcements that the curfew imposed by Auf was lifted, that an order was issued to complete the release of those who were jailed under emergency laws issued by al-Bashir. It was also announced that intelligence and security chief Salah Gosh had resigned. Amnesty International asked the military coalition to investigate his role in protesters’ deaths.
On 14 April it was announced that the council had agreed to have the protestors nominate a civilian Prime Minister and have civilians run every Government ministry outside the Defense and Interior Ministries. The same day, military council spokesman Shams El Din Kabbashi Shinto announced that Auf had been removed as Defense Minister and that Lt. General Abu Bakr Mustafa had been named to succeed Gosh as chief of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).
On 15 April, military council spokesman Shams al-Din Kabbashi announced “The former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) will not participate in any transitional government,” despite not being barred from future elections The same day, prominent activist Mohammed Naji al-Asam announced that trust was also growing between the military and the protestors following more talks and the release of more political prisoners, despite a poorly organized attempt by the army to disperse the sit-in. It was also announced that the military council was undergoing restructuring, which began with the appointments of Colonel General Hashem Abdel Muttalib Ahmed Babakr as army chief of staff and Colonel General Mohamed Othman al-Hussein as deputy chief of staff.
On 16 April, the military council announced that Burhan once again cooperated with the demands of the protestors and sacked the nation’s three top prosecutors, including chief prosecutor Omar Ahmed Mohamed Abdelsalam, public prosecutor Amer Ibrahim Majid, and deputy public prosecutor Hesham Othman Ibrahim Saleh.The same day, two sources with direct knowledge told CNN that Bashir, his former interior minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, and Ahmed Haroun, the former head of the ruling party, will be charged with corruption and the death of protesters.
On 17 April, al-Bashir was transferred from house arrest in the Presidential Palace to solitary confinement at the maximum-security Kobar prison in Khartoum, a prison notorious for holding political prisoners during al-Bashir’s time in power. Military council spokesman Shams Eldin Kabashi said that two of al-Bashir’s brothers, Abdullah and Alabas, had also been arrested
On 18 April, crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands demonstrated to demand civilian rule. The demonstration was the largest since al-Bashir was deposed.[9] Protest leaders also announced plans to name their own transitional council in two days’ time if the military junta refused to step aside.
On 20 April, an anonymous judicial source said that officials had found suitcases full of Euros, US dollars, and Sudanese Pounds in al-Bashir’s home (totalling around $6.7 million). Current Parliament Speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar and presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie were placed under house arrest; the secretary general of the Islamic movement Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan and former parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher were also among those arrested in relation to these suitcases.
On 21 April, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the transitional military council “complementary to the uprising and the revolution” and promised that it was “committed to handing over power to the people.”Nevertheless, protest leaders broke off talks with the military authorities the same day—saying that the military junta was not serious about transferring power to civilians and that the junta was composed of remnants of al-Bashir’s Islamist regime—and vowed to intensify demonstrations.The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates pledged $3 billion in aid to the military authorities which protestors called upon the council to reject, with some even suggesting severing diplomatic ties with both historical allies.Meanwhile, as a result of strikes at oil companies in Port Sudan, landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports were paralysed.
On Wednesday 24 April, three members of the Transitional Military Council (political committee chair Omar Zain al-Abideen, Lieutenant-General Jalal al-Deen al-Sheikh and Lieutenant-General Al-Tayeb Babakr Ali Fadeel) submitted their resignations in response to protestors’ demands.On Saturday 27 April, an agreement was reached to form a transitional council made up jointly of civilians and military, though the exact details of the power-sharing arrangement were not yet agreed upon, as both sides wanted to have a majority. The military also announced the resignation of the three military council generals.
On 7 May 2019, 21 former officials who served in al-Bashir’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in South Darfur were arrested after attempting to flee the country. On May 8, it was revealed that some of the South Darfur officials who arrested were women.
Qatari-based Al Jazeera announced the Sudanese authorities had revoked their right to broadcast from Sudan on 30 May 2019. Two civilian deaths were reported the same day. The Transitional Military Council cracked down on the “Columbia” neighbourhood in North Khartoum where the drug, alcohol and sex trades have become more open during the transition. Rapid Support Forces and police reportedly fired live ammunition, resulting in casualties (1 dead, 10 wounded).
3 June – 11 June: Khartoum massacre and civil disobedience
Tensions continued to rise and on 3 June 2019, 118 people were killed, 70 were raped and hundreds were injured in the Khartoum massacreas a result of Sudanese armed forces storming a camp and opening fire on protester security forces also opened fire on protesters inside medical facilities. Security forces dumped bodies of some of the killed protesters in the river Nile.
The following day, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) called for “complete civil disobedience” to close down streets and bridges and “open political strike” in all workplaces in Sudan, using the techniques of nonviolent resistance against the TMC.
On 8 June, the SPA warned of a wide campaign by the TMC of arresting and disappearing political activists or threatening to kill them. The SPA called for activists to strictly follow the methods of nonviolent resistance in their campaign of civil disobedience and workplace strikes.
A 3-day general strike and nationwide civil disobedience campaign were carried out from 9–11 June. The SPA estimated 60–95% pupils’ and teachers’ absences from primary and high schools; 67–99% closure of municipal and national bus transport; 84–99% blocking of flights; 98–100% blocking of rail transport; 64–72% bank closures; 86% closure of retail markets; 60–94% closure of electricity, heating, oil and gas stations; 57–100% non-publication of newspaper publishing; 47–90% of medical services were closed, but free emergency medical care was provided; 90–100% of private and state legal services were shut down. NISS and Huawei forcefully shutdown the Internet at the level of 63–100% (levels varying per provider).
12 June – 4 July: negotiations and protests
People in Chicago show solidarity with protesters in Sudan, July 2019
Negotiations to form a government, small protests, and a government-imposed Internet blockade continued during much of June.
On 12 June, the TMC agreed to release political prisoners and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) agreed to suspend the general strike, according to the Ethiopian mediator Mahmoud Drir. The two sides also agreed “to resume talks soon” about forming a civilian government.
On 12 June, the FFC prepared a list of eight civilian members for a 15-member transitional governmental council, including three women, in addition to Abdalla Hamdok, who was Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from 2011 to October 2018,as prime minister.
On 13 June, TMC spokesperson Shams El Din Kabbashi stated that “some” security force members had been arrested over the 3 June massacre and that eighteen people, members of two different groups planning coups against the TMC, had also been arrested.
On 29 June, TMC security forces raided the headquarters of the Sudanese Professionals Association, preventing a press conference from taking place.
On 30 June, the thirtieth anniversary of al-Bashir’s coup d’état, twenty thousand people protested in Khartoum and elsewhere around Sudan to call for civilian rule and justice for the 3 June massacre. Ten people were killed during the demonstrations, including one shot dead by security forces in Atbara, and according to the Health Ministry, 181 people were injured among which 27 suffered gunshot wounds.[152] Tear gas, live ammunition and stun grenades were used against protestors in Khartoum and in El-Gadarif.Ahmed Rabie of the opposition attributed all the deaths to the TMC, stating, “We hold the TMC responsible because those who were killed were shot under the eyes of the security forces, which either killed them or failed to protect them.”The TMC attributed responsibility for the deaths to the protestors.General Gamal Omar of the TMC said that people who fired at security forces, killing two and wounding three, were arrested by the RSF.
On 3 July, direct talks between the TMC and the DFCF resumed after mediation by the African Union and Ethiopia
.
5 July – 28 July: political agreement and negotiations
On 5 July, with the help of African Union and Ethiopian mediators, a verbal deal was reached by the TMC and civilian negotiators of the FFC, including Siddig Yousif, on the formation of governmental institutions, under which the presidency of the transitional government would rotate between the military and civilians.The deal agreed to by the TMC and the civilian negotiators included:
- the creation of an 11-member sovereign council with five military members and five civilians to be chosen by the two sides and a civilian to be agreed upon mutually;
- a transition period of 3 years and 3 months, led by a military member for the first 21 months and a civilian for the following 18 months;
- a cabinet of ministers to be appointed by the FFC;
- a legislative council to be formed after the creation of the sovereign council and cabinet;
- the creation of a “transparent and independent investigation” into events following the 2019 Sudanese coup d’état, including the Khartoum massacre;
- a committee of lawyers, including African Union lawyers, to formalise the deal within 48 hours;
- democratic elections to determine leadership following the 39-month transition period
Tahani Abbas, a cofounder of No to Oppression against Women Initiative, stated her worry that women might be excluded from the transition institutions, arguing that women “[bear] the brunt of the violence, [face] sexual harassment and rape” and were active in organising the protests.On 9 July, a 4-member committee, including Yahia al-Hussein, was still drafting the written form of the agreement. The committee expected it to be signed in the presence of regional leaders within 10 days. While waiting for the written agreement to be prepared and signed, the Internet in Sudan continued to be mostly blocked. TMC spokesperson Shams al-Din Kabbashi claimed on 7 July that the Internet ban was necessary to protect the transition deal, since groups opposed to the deal planned to misrepresent it. He promised to restore the Internet within “two or three days”. United Nations human rights experts Aristide Nononsi, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule and David Kaey stated that the Internet ban was a violation of international human rights law and not justified under any circumstances.
On 17 July 2019, the agreement was formalised with the signing by the TMC and the FFC of a written documentin front of international witnesses A constitutional declaration remained to be prepared to complete the definition of the transition period.
On 27 July, while negotiations on the constitutional declaration continued, the head of a committee appointed by the TMC to investigate the Khartoum massacre, Fathelrahman Saeed, stated that 87 people had been killed, 168 injured, no rapes had occurred and no tents had been burnt. Saeed stated that legal cases for crimes against humanity had been launched against eight unnamed high-ranking security officers.The Sudan Forensic Doctors Union described the result of the enquiry as “poor and defective”, and the FFC, the Sudanese Women’s Union, the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Democratic Lawyers’ Alliance rejected the report. Street protests took place in Khartoum in response to the report.
29 July – El Obeid massacre to Constitutional Declaration
4 August signed Constitutional Declaration
On 29 July the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot live ammunition at students in El-Obeid protesting about “the stoppage of public transport due to fuel shortages, drinking water outages, increasing commodity prices, and the unavailability of bread”. Four students and another protestor died immediately and 40 to 50 were wounded,among which eight were in a serious condition.Twenty thousand people demonstrated in Khartoum in protest against the killings on the afternoon and evening of the same day.he FFC team negotiating with the TMC for a constitutional declaration suspended negotiations and instead travelled to El-Obeid to “assess the situation”. Seven RSF members were arrested and an investigation was planned by the North Kordofan Attorney General.The TMC stated that the RSF members responsible for the shooting had been guarding a bank and been assaulted with stones, with nine RSF members, three soldiers from the regular army and a policeman injured
On 1 August, another massacre occurred, in which four protestors were shot dead in Umbada in Omdurmanby “government forces” in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Sudan Change Now, a member of the FFC posted a statement of position on the constitutional negotiation process on 16 July 2019, accusing the TMC of manipulating the negotiation process and demanding prosecution of those involved in all massacres, liquidation of the militias, legal reform, and representation for all of the armed struggle movements in the political agreement.
The TMC, represented by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemetti”), and the FFC, represented by Ahmed Rabee, signed the Draft Constitutional Declaration on 4 August 2019. The Draft Constitutional Declaration, together with the 17 July Political Agreement, defines a Sovereignty Council of five civilians, five military, and a civilian mutually acceptable to the TMC and FFC, along with other transitional state bodies and procedures, for a 39-month transition period.
Transitional institutions
Dissolution of the TMC and appointment of the Sovereignty Council, all male except for two women, took place on 20 August 2019. Abdalla Hamdok was appointed Prime Minister on 21 AugustAbdel Fattah al-Burhan became Chairman of the Sovereignty Council from 21 August 2019. A “comprehensive peace process” with armed opposition groups began on 1 September 2019.Nemat Abdullah Khair was appointed Chief Justice on 10 October 2019.
- Exclusion of women
The Sovereignty Council is almost completely male, with only two women members: Aisha Musa el-Said and Raja Nicola. The new Chief Justice appointed in October 2019, Nemat Abdullah Khair, who heads the judiciary and the Supreme Court, is a woman.The candidates initially proposed by the FFC for the Cabinet of Ministers included very few womenThe Sudanese Women’s Union (SWU) argued on 18 August that women had played as significant a role as men in “the revolution” of 2019 and that Sudanese women “claim an equal share of 50-50 with men at all levels, measured by qualifications and capabilities”. Channel 4 reporter Yousra Elbagir criticised the beginning steps of the transition procedures, stating, “For the [first] tangible political progress of decades to exclude women is ridiculous. … Women were the reason that the mass pro-democracy sit-in was able to continue for nearly two months. They ran make-shift clinics, fed fasting protesters daily during Ramadan, they spent the night at check points searching female protesters.”
On 22 August, the SWU held a protest in front of the SPA’s Khartoum office calling for a fifty percent participation of women “at all levels of power and decision-making bodies”.The SWU interpreted the Draft Constitutional Declaration to guarantee women at least forty percent of seats at every level of government. Some of the protesters held banners stating “We are also technocrats!” in reference to plans for the Cabinet of Ministers to be composed of technocrats.
Transition period protests
Protests continued during the transition period, on issues that included the nomination of a new Chief Justice of Sudan and Attorney-General,killings of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, protests against a state governor in el-Gadarif and against show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators,and for officials of the previous government to be dismissed in Red Sea and White Nile.
Khartoum hosts the largest continental center for illegal immigration
On behalf of the Government of Sudan, Ambassador Anas Al-Tayeb Al-Jilani signed the Headquarters Agreement to host the African Union’s Center for Illegal Immigration.
Ms. Mariam Cisse, Director of Social Affairs on behalf of the African Union Commission, is the first of its kind in the African continent, where the Center will provide services to all African countries and support the European Union technical and material center, and the embrace of the Center in Khartoum in recognition of the role of Sudan and its estimated contributions to combat illegal migration in the region Horn of Africa.
Sudan: South Darfur Camp Protest Turns Deadly, UNAMID Calls for Restraint
Nyala — At least three people died in protests against a visit of the Sudanese president in Kalma camp in South Darfur. The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur said it is deeply concerned about clashes between Sudanese government forces and displaced people.
Approximately 26 others were wounded, according to the Unamid peacekeeping mission in a press statement received by Radio Dabanga.
The Kalma camp coordinator released a statement earlier today reporting that five people were killed this morning, and 26 people sustained injuries. The coordinator provided the names of the deceased and said that the wounded are being treated in the Unamid base in the camp
Unamid urges all conflicting parties to exercise utmost restraint and “is doing everything it can to deescalate the situation.
“I call upon everyone involved in this situation to restore calm as soon as possible. A peaceful resolution of differences is the only way forward for the Darfuri people,” said Unamid Joint Special Representative, Jeremiah Mamabolo.
A medical team from Unamid is currently in Kalma camp to assist local authorities in treating the injured. Furthermore, the mission engages with the state government and leaders of the displaced communities in an attempt to peacefully resolve the issue.
The deadly incident reportedly occurred this morning after forces of the Sudanese government dispersed a group of displaced people who were protesting against the visit of the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir to South Darfur.
Belgium criticised for inviting Sudanese ‘secret agents’ to Brussels to identify migrants
The Belgian government faces widespread criticism after it invited officials from the brutal Sudanese dictatorship to Brussels to identify migrants and provide documents for their forced return to the country.
Opposition politicians and groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty warned the Sudanese identification team are likely to be secret police seeking political opponents and accused the government of collaboration with the regime.
Illegal migrants would be given repatriation papers, according to Theo Francken, Belgium’s asylum and migration minister, but campaigners said it was very likely that genuine refugees would be faced with their oppressors.
Mr Francken defended his invitation to inspect about 100 migrants. He said Belgium’s intelligence services had screened the three officials, who arrived in Brussels on Monday, to make sure they were not secret agents.
Mr Francken, a flamboyant Flemish nationalist is notorious for his hard-line views on immigration, added: “We are doing what many other European countries do with African countries. It is not exceptional to do this with Sudan.”
Sudan’s ruling party calls on its members to abort civil disobedience call
December 10, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday has held an expanded meeting to brief the heads of its chapters in Khartoum on the challenges facing the country and ways to confront the civil disobedience action that will take place on 19 December.
Last month, the government decision to scrap fuel, electricity and drug subsidy stirred up large protests across the Sudan.
Following a three-day protest against the austerity measures between 27 to 29 November, groups of activists has called on the Sudanese people to engage in a civil disobedience on December 19th.
Several opposition forces and armed groups including the Sudanese Congress Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Sudanese Communist Party, National Umma Party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/North and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi expressed support for the upcoming event and called upon their affiliates to play an active role in the strike.
In his address before the meeting of the party chapters in Khartoum on Saturday, NCP deputy chairman and presidential aide Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said “Sudan is facing an unfair campaign that aims to exploit its resources and wealth”.
He pointed that the country is being targeted internally and externally, saying they would go ahead with the implementation of the national dialogue’s outcome.
Hamid renewed the call for the holdout opposition to join the dialogue, expressing his party’s support for the upcoming government of national concord.
The presidential assistant demanded his party members to face the challenges and ignore calls by the “rumors mongers” for civil disobedience, saying they only exist on the “virtual world”.
He added that the austerity measures aim to restructure the economy, saying 1.3 million family would be added to the government health insurance programme.
For his part, deputy chairman of the NCP in Khartoum, Mohamed Hatim Sulieman said they would implement a 100-day programme to ease the burdens of living.
TV ANCHOR SUSPENDED
Meanwhile, the pro-government Ashorooq TV has suspended one of its anchors for participating in last month’s civil disobedience action.
On a Facebook post on Wednesday, Arwa Khogali, anchor at Ashorooq TV said she would not appear on her programme on Friday due to an administrative decision by the station.
Sudan Tribune learnt that Khogali, didn’t appear on the weekly “Culture Week” show because of her participation in the civil disobedience.
Sudan President Omar al-Bashir rejects Amnesty International `lies` about Darfur chemical attacks
President Omar al-Bashir on Saturday accused Amnesty International of spreading “lies” that Sudanese government forces had used chemical weapons against civilians in war-torn Darfur.Last month, Amnesty said in a report that Sudanese forces had carried out more than 30 suspected chemical weapons attacks in a mountainous area of Darfur that killed up to 250 people, including many children.
“In the past few days you have been following all the lies and allegations made by Amnesty International about use of chemical weapons,” Bashir said in an address to workers of his National Congress Party.
“These are just empty lies,” Bashir said in his first reaction to Amnesty`s report.
The rights group accused Sudanese forces of “the repeated use” of suspected chemical weapons against civilians in Darfur`s remote and thickly forested Jebel Marra area between January and September.
“Between 200 and 250 people may have died as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents, with many or most being children,” Amnesty said.
The nearly 100-page report contained gruesome photographs of children suffering from apparent chemical burns, satellite images of destroyed villages and displaced people, interviews with more than 200 survivors and analysis by chemical weapons experts.
Amnesty said the attacks were part of a military operation against the rebel Sudan Liberation Army – Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW) group, which Khartoum accuses of ambushing military convoys and attacking civilians.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Jebel Marra since mid-January by fighting between the two sides, the United Nations says.
The UN has urged Sudan to shed light on Amnesty`s claims, while the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has sought further evidence to push for a formal investigation.
Sudan is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Darfur has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against Bashir`s Arab-dominated government, which launched a brutal counter-insurgency.
At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since then, the UN says.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur, which he denies.
Sudan insists that the conflict in Darfur has ended, and that it wants UN peacekeepers who have been deployed in the region the size of France since 2007 to leave.
Chemical weapons are being used against the Darfuris. This is a war crime
The research, which used extensive satellite imagery analysis as well as more than 200 detailed interviews with witnesses, revealed a troubling picture. The Sudanese armed forces have carried out widespread attacks on hundreds of villages, committing war crimes and gross human rights violations including bombing, killings, rapes and the use of scorched-earth tactics.
We also found substantial evidence – the photos included – of the use of chemical weapons being used to kill and maim civilians, including children.
Amnesty International has not taken the decision to publish these deeply disturbing photos lightly: we believe the horrific war crimes being committed in Darfur require concerted action on the part of the international community.
Once the cause celebre of many in the west, Darfur seems to have dropped off the global agenda in recent years. The fact that the region is under the watch of one of the largest peacekeeping forces in the world, and that earlier this month Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, proclaimed that peace had returned to the troubled region, make Amnesty’s findings all the more galling.
After all, we are talking about the same types of war crimes that first catapulted Darfur into the world’s consciousness in 2004. But this is 13 years later; and the attacks we’ve documented happened between January and September 2016. The most recent was on 9 September 2016; just a few weeks ago and the day after Bashir’s lofty proclamation.
And if the use of chemical weapons is confirmed, this would represent a new level of barbarity in the conflict, and a new depth to the range of suffering endured by the Darfuri people. One woman described how her baby was still sick some six months after exposure to what she described as “poisoned air”.
“The baby is not recovering … he is swollen … he has blisters and wounds,” she said. “The [medical staff] say he will get better if he drinks [breast] milk … but it is not working.”
Chemical weapons have been banned for decades at the international level in recognition of the fact that the suffering they cause can never be justified. Credible evidence that Sudan’s government might now repeatedly be using them simply cannot be ignored.
More than a decade ago, the international criminal court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on three counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes. And yet, the president has since won two elections and travelled regularly, including to Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. As signatories to the Rome statute which created the ICC, each of these countries had a duty to arrest Bashir on his arrival. None of them did.
Absolutely no effective measures have ever been put in place to protect civilians in Darfur despite being under the watch of a joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping mission (Unamid). Peace talks and agreements have brought no security or respite for the Darfuri people.
The response of the international community in the last 10 years has been utterly deplorable and in the face of such an ineffective reaction, it is little wonder that Al-Bashir’s hubris has grown.
In the light of this shocking new evidence, and on the eve of the UN security council meeting in New York, we are calling on it to do more to protect the children, men and women of Darfur.
It can do this by applying political pressure on the government of Sudan to ensure that the Unamid peacekeeping force, as well as humanitarian agencies, can access parts of Darfur such as Jebel Marra, where some of the worst abuses appear to be happening. There need to be more peacekeeping bases, and they must be able to conduct proactive patrols deep into these remote areas.
There also needs to be an urgent investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Jebel Marra and, if there is sufficient evidence, prosecutions of all those suspected of criminal responsibility must follow.
Bashir must learn that there are consequences when crimes under international law are committed. There has been 13 years of catastrophic violence and recurring human rights violations; it’s time the world set its focus, once more, on Darfur and act.
SPLM-N urges U.S. envoy to raise case of detained pastors with Sudanese government
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) Saturday has called on the United States Special Envoy Donald Booth to help to secure the release of detained pastors and activists in Sudan.
Sudanese Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud, (L) shakes hands with U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth at his office in Khartoum on July 29, 2016 (ST Photo)
Last week a Sudanese court began the trial of two Sudanese Christian pastors, a Czech missionary filmmaker and a human rights activist. The four are accused of conducting intelligence activities and providing material support for the rebels in South Kordofan.
Ahead of Booth’s visit to Khartoum, SPLM-N Secretary General Yasir Arman disclosed in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune that he requested the U.S. special envoy to advocate for their release.
“SPLM-N Secretary General on Friday phoned the US special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan who is on his way to Khartoum about the attacks on Sudanese Christians especially the trial of Christian pastors from the Nuba Mountains and civil society activists including, Rev. Kuwa Shamal, Rev. Hassan Abdel Rahim, activist Abdel-Moneim and Czech journalist Petr Jasek,” said the statement .
According to the statement, the US diplomat stressed that the American embassy in Khartoum is following this “important issue”.
“The Secretary-General sent the same message to the other international envoys to Sudan” added the statement, underlining that the issue is related to the “right of citizenship without discrimination and to ensure basic human rights”.
The SPLM-N and two armed groups in Darfur signed earlier this month a Roadmap Agreement providing to negotiate cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access agreements with the government.
The rebel groups and the government are expected to resume talks within two week to finalize the humanitarian truce before to hold a meeting to discuss other confidence building measures including basic freedoms. These steps are supposed to pave the way for their return to Khartoum to take part in a constitutional conference.
In a related development the SPLM-N formed a 23-member committee to reach the international community and to campaign for the rights of Sudanese Christians
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article60056
Sudanese editors face death penalty for ‘inciting an Arab Spring’
Two prominent Sudanese editors are facing the death penalty over claims they are “inciting an Arab spring” and have introduced anti-government editorial policies at their newspapers.
Osman Marghani and Ahmed Yousef El Tay were seized by the intelligence services at their offices last Thursday. They face sentencing this week.
Marghani, editor-in-chief of the prominent El Tayar newspaper, said his publication had been made a scapegoat for widespread criticism of the government. “We were held by security officers and taken by cars from our offices, and they accused us of inciting people against the regime,” he said.
“I think the president is very angry about our media coverage of next year’s budget, and our criticism of the finance minister. So our newspaper is the scapegoat.”
The two men are accused of abusing their positions as journalists, publishing false news and undermining the constitutional system, a crime punishable by death in Sudan.
The Sudanese Journalists Network has condemned the arrests, urging all journalists to “counter the attack from the president and his intelligence agency”.
Marghani and El Tay are being charged under two articles of the criminal code, which adheres to Islamic Sharia law. Faisal Mohammed Salih, a journalist and human rights activist, says the code was in conflict with the constitution, which guarantees the right to “freedom of speech”.
“The government is facing a genuine challenge this time, and we will see whether they will respect their own laws and constitution, or not,” Salih said.
The arrests come just days after the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, threatened the media and vowed to take “decisive measures” against journalists who criticise his finance minister, Bader El Deen Mahmoud.
Sudanese reporters have worked in an increasingly repressive climate since Bashir seized power in a Islamist-backed coup in 1989. The country currently ranks 174th out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index.
Marghani’s El-Tayar newspaper was previously suspended for two years by the government before winning an appeal from the constitutional court in 2014. This year, the newspaper has had it’s entire print run confiscated by the security services more than 15 times.
In February, 14 daily papers were confiscated in one day, followed shortly by the seizure of copies of 17 further publications by the intelligence agencies.
“All over the world, the media shapes public opinion. Only in Sudan, when the newspapers disclose corruption or anything against the government, they get very angry,” Salih said.
seesudan 