Africa

November 25, 2020 (HAMDAYET) - The intensification of the fighting in the neighbouring Tigray region considerably reduced the number of refugees crossing into Sudanese territory.

During the past few days, the Ethiopian army retook control of Humera near the border with Sudan and Eritrea, as the government forces seek to encircle the Tigrayans fighters from several fronts.

There no reports about the humanitarian situation in the area. However, an AFP reporter who reached the area said Amhara officials and militiamen are now controlling the area which was part of their region until 1991, as they said.

The Hamdayet witnessed a sudden and visible decline in the number of refugees after the federal army deployed a large group of its forces in the Dima border area to stop the fleeing Tigray and prevent them from crossing the Sitet river into the Sudanese territory.

Humanitarian sources in Hamdayet confirmed to Sudan Tribune that only 349 refugees arrived in the transit centre on Monday.

Ethiopian activists say the Ethiopian government seeks to prevent refugees from leaving the country, pointing to the growing international pressure on Addis Ababa to accept negotiations with the Tigray region officials.

So far, the UNHCR has managed to transport 8,882 Ethiopians to Um Rakoba camp in Gadaref State. The UN agency said they would continue the operation on Thursday morning.

As of Wednesday, the number of Ethiopian refugees who reached the Hamdayet reached 26,869 thousand in addition to 15,446 who arrived at Hashaba camp in Fashaqa in the state of Gadaref.

Sudan Tribune reporter who visited the Hamdayet refugee reception centre noticed the deterioration of health conditions, accumulation of waste and the spread of diseases among refugee children, following a severe cold wave.

More than 391 children are sick, say health workers.

They also warned against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic saying its symptoms appeared among refugees.

(ST)

November 25, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that Sudan did not vote for any draft resolutions presented by Israel in the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Local newspapers, however, recently reported that Sudan had voted for an Israeli draft resolution in the United Nations General Assembly.

"We would like to make it clear that what has been reported in some media outlets about Sudan's vote in favour of Israel in the United Nations is inaccurate. Sudan did not vote for any draft resolution tabled by Israel during the current or previous sessions of the General Assembly," said the Ministry's official statement.

The statement did not mention Sudan's position on the draft resolution, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to Hebrew media, that Sudan, for the first time, did not vote against Israel in the United Nations, though it traditionally had done so.

Israeli media have also reported Sudan as being one of several countries with an institutional bias against Israel, citing the former country's repeated rejection of Israeli resolutions at General Assembly meetings.

On Monday, the Sudanese government kept secret a visit of an Israeli delegation headed by the Deputy Director of National Security to Khartoum where the delegation discussed security issues relating to military components according to press leaks.

On October 23, Sudan officially recognized the State of Israel and pledged to establish diplomatic and economic relations in a deal sponsored by incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump.

A day after Sudan announced its recognition of Israel, the latter said it would send $5 million worth of wheat to support Khartoum's efforts to overcome the economic crisis.

November 25, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The leaders of the parties to the transitional government in Sudan agreed on Wednesday to form the Transition Partners Council, consisting of 21 members.

The new political body is one of the disposition added to the transitional constitution after the signing of a peace agreement with the armed groups.

It aims to coordinate positions and resolve differences between the parties that signed the political agreement of 17 August 2019 and the peace agreement of 3 October 2020.

Ten of the 21 seats in the partnership council will go the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) and five seats will be allocated for each of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and the military component of the Sovereignty Council. In addition, the 21st seat will go to Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

Sudan Tribune further learnt that the parties agreed to form a secretariat consisting of eight members, four of them represent the FFC groups, two for the SRF and two for the military component.

The Chairman of the Sovereign Council Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan will assume the presidency of the Council and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok will be alternate president.

The Forces of Freedom and Change nominated their representatives in the Partners Council, namely: Babikir Faisal, Youssef Muhammad Zain, Omer al-Dugair, Fadlallah Barmah, Kamal Bolad, Ali Alrayah Alsanhouri, Haydar al-Safi, Taha Osman, Mohamed Nagi Al-Asam and Jamal Idris.

Also, the FFC representatives in the secretariat are Khalid Omer, Mutaz Saleh, Muhaid Siddiq and Nasreddin Ahmed.

The deal will pave the way for the formation of a new cabinet with 25% of its ministers representing the armed groups of the two SRF factions.

The SPLM-N North led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, on Tuesday, issued a statement denouncing the draft status of the partnership saying it aims to confiscate the powers of the legislative body, reduce the government authority and benefit the military body.

The holdout group further stressed that this agreement aims to lock the way for the negotiations on the roots of the Sudanese crisis and to leave them with the only option to join the Juba peace agreement.

However, the FFC leading member Khalid Omer Youssif stressed in statements on Wednesday that the purpose of this agreement is to coordinate the position of the parties to the transitional government.

This council is not executive nor a legislative body, he said stressing that it would not interfere in the function of the government bodies.

(ST)

A young mother has been talking about how she was shunned by her community in Uganda when she returned home after being abducted and forced to fight for rebels as a child soldier.

November 26, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's former prime minister and political leader Sadiq al-Mahdi died from the coronavirus, his family and the National Umma Party said on Thursday morning.

Al-Mahdi, 84, who is the first public figure to die from the respiratory disease was hospitalised in the United Arab Emirates immediately after his infection.

The NUP issued a statement saying that his body will arrive in Khartoum on Friday 27 November morning and his funeral will take place in the dome of Imam al-Mahdi where he will be buried.

Until Tuesday, his family was keen to reassure the NUP's supporters and the members of the Ansar religious sect about his health conditions.

Sudan's last democratically elected prime minister thought during the last 30 years former to convince the Sudanese Islamists to restore democracy in the country.

In return, they always proposed him to join them, an offer he always declined.

In August 2014, he signed a political declaration with the armed groups and proposed a national conference for peace and democracy in Sudan.

He kept working for a democratic transition in Sudan until the start of the popular uprising in December 2019 that led to the collapse of the al-Bashir regime.

(ST)

With communications largely cut to the Tigray region, both sides in the conflict are trying to control the narrative.

By Dak Buoth

‘‘Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph''. Haile Selassie.

The fundamental principles of peace, love and unity are natural and international. There is nothing better than Peace, Love and Unity of the people. United people can never be defeated.

At the onset of the South Sudanese independence struggles for freedom, the Ethiopians people and their successive regimes had been at the forefront in our pursuit for peace, justice and liberty. In the era of King Haile Selassie, President, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister, Haile Mariam Desalegn, and now Prime Minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed, the contribution of the Ethiopian people and their governments had never been missing in our journey to where we are as a nation.

The proactive role of the Ethiopian people toward the advancement and achievement of our political independence is known, and it doesn't need to be narrated at length. In Latin, they say ‘Res ipsa liquotur', which means ‘the thing speaks for itself'. Actually, President Colonel Mengistu did trained and supplied the SPLM/SPLA with military weapons when the rest were issuing empty political rhetoric.

In December 2013, when South Sudan plunged into a civil war that saw the SPLM regime descended on the Nuer nationality, killing over 20,000 people in two weeks, Ethiopian government under Prime Haile Mariam Desalegn with among other IGAD leaders swiftly intervened and called for peace talks in Addis Ababa. That peace talk emanated to the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) which later collapsed after the brutal battle in State House alias J1 in July 2016.

Equally, in 2018, when Dr Abiy Ahmed ascended to the helm of the leadership as Prime Minister of Ethiopia, he took it upon himself to demand Dr Riek Machar's release from South Africa to join the peace mediations which later resulted to the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). It was this Peace Accord that gave birth to the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity.

These friendly gestures by our Ethiopian neighbours ought to be reciprocated by South Sudanese people and their Administration through positive interventions. However, it is a shame for the South Sudan government to maintain pin-drop silence while Ethiopia is undergoing a civil war. It is our individual and collective responsibility to preach peace and harmony.

The call for peace in our East African region and the world is not a preserve of a few. In view of the foregoing, I stand in solidarity with Ethiopian people and especially the Tigray community. In the unlikely event that the government is fighting its people, the presumption is that the people are right and the government is wrong. Thus, i condemn the Federal Government of Ethiopia for launching a military offensive against the Tigray people and children.

From our experiences in Sudan and South Sudan, the government can never and will never be right in the war against its citizenry. So far hundreds of people have died and thousands more are displaced in this conflict that started on 4th November 2020. I believe only Nuer who once faced brutality in the hand of rogue regimes can understand what the Tigrayans are going through in this war.

On 15th December 2013, when South Sudan government conducted military operations against the Nuer people in Juba and across the country in the pretext of weeding out opposition leaders like Dr Riek Machar, lives had never been the same for our people. Many of our people have been disposed of and impoverished. As of now much, Nuer Youths are dying in the Mediterranean Sea as they cross to Europe in search of greener pasture.

In this regard, we would never wish that situation to any community on this continent and the world at large. In this regard, the South Sudan government should join regional and International call for dialogue between Tigray forces and Ethiopian Federal Government to end the bloodshed and widespread displacement of civilians. How can our government keep quiet when there is an ongoing conflict that threatens the seat of the African Union (AU)?

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed must accept dialogue unconditionally failure to which he should surrender the Nobel Peace Prize that he given a year ago. He cannot call and champion peace negotiation in other countries and reject the peaceful settlement of the dispute in his own country. This is war, and there is no big and small war. All wars kill and destroy lives and properties. The Ethiopians have died in big numbers in this war. Abiy must open window for talks; allow humanitarian access to Tigrayan region, and he should also restore internet and telecommunication so that affected people can call and receive humanitarian assistance.

Finally, the Eritrean President, Isaias Afwerki must tread carefully in this conflict. He should not act like President Yoweri Museveni who fought alongside South Sudan government in 2014, going to an extent of using cluster bombs in Bor, Jonglei State. No leader in the region should take a side in this war except peaceful intervention only.

The Writer is the Chairman of Liech Community Association in Kenya; the views expressed here are his own, and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com

November 24, 2020 (GADAREF) - Heath and university officials in the eastern Sudan border state of Gadaref are exerting efforts to contain diseases and epidemics, in the refugee camps after the massive arrival of Ethiopian fleeing the war between the federal army and Tigray region forces.

Over 45,000 Ethiopian have reached the Sudanese territory following the eruption of fighting in the Tigray region bordering Sudan. The humanitarian agencies expect that their number would be doubled in light of the continuing military escalation.

For her part, the Director-General of the Gadaref State Ministry of Health, Amira Hashim al-Gaddal, confirmed that there were cases of AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, as well as diabetes and blood pressure, among the refugees along with a large number of pregnant women.

Al-Gaddal further pointed to the high percentage of people infected with AIDS in the Ethiopian regions adjacent to the state of Gedaref compared to the Sudanese regions.

"The matter needs measures between the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization," she added.

The health official called for the establishment of isolation centres in refugee camps for the COVID-19 pandemic, and she expected an increase in HIV cases in the state of Gedaref.

She warned of the possible transmission and spread of epidemics, due to the interaction between the refugees and the residents and called on the UNHCR and aid groups to provide the needed health care for those who arrive in the camps.

Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister refused international calls to end the fighting saying that his forces are carrying out an internal law enforcement operation.

The University of Gadaref announced a plan to coordinate efforts and conduct a survey in the refugee camps to reduce the negative impact of refugees' displacement and to curb the spread of diseases and epidemics.

Secretary-General of Gadaref University Mutaz Abdel Rahim Abu Aqlah told the Sudan Tribune Tuesday that the plans were developed to facilitate humanitarian activities of local, regional and international organizations through the Colleges of Community Development and Medicine following the increasing number of Ethiopian refugees.

He pointed out that they have provided donors and aid groups with many technical studies and scientific researches as the Institute of Endemic Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine successfully conducted a number of researches on Klazar and other diseases. He also indicated that the coronavirus testing laboratory works efficiently.

(ST)

Some ethnic Tigrayans complain of harassment and discrimination - an allegation the government denies.

Two senior UN officials welcomed on Tuesday the war crimes conviction and life sentencing of an armed combatant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

The Desert Locust crisis which struck the greater Horn of Africa region earlier this year threatening food supplies for millions, could re-escalate as recent strong winds carried mature swarmlets from southern Somalia into eastern and northeastern Kenya, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday.

The “broad political consensus” reached in September that ended a two-year stalemate in Somalia must be “preserved and indeed deepened”, the country’s UN envoy told the Security Council on Monday. 

The Somali government retrains defectors from the al-Shabab militant group as barbers, drivers, mechanics and tailors.

War veteran and ex-minister Debretsion Gebremichael now leads the struggle against the government.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the African Union’s (AU) appointment of three high-level envoys to help resolve the conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, calling it an "initiative for peace.”

Three consequences of the ongoing crisis in Tigray.

The COVID-19 crisis was impacting Africa “well before the pandemic spread across the continent”, the UN chief said on Friday, marking Africa Industrialization Day, arriving at a point when many economies were expanding and “poverty was in decline”.   

Manipulated and false images with no relation to the crisis in Ethiopia are being shared online.

In a briefing to journalists on Thursday, a senior UN humanitarian official in Sudan recounted moving testimony from refugees who are crossing the border from Ethiopia in their thousands, fleeing fighting in Tigray province.

Following years of political instability and conflict, Libya is making substantial progress on the path to peace, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council on Thursday.