Africa

November 15, 2016 (JUBA) - The United Nations Security Council has called on Sudan and South Sudan to immediately resume negotiations on the final status of the disputed area of Abyei, saying it constitutes a serious threat to international order.

An officer from the UN peacekeeping mission in Abyei (UNISFA) on patrol in the disputed region, which is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan (AFP)

The call came after the 15-member council voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Abyei, underscoring that peacekeepers are charged with taking necessary action to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.

In its resolution, extending the peacekeepers' mandate in Abyei, the Council further stressed that the future status of Abyei shall be resolved peacefully, through negotiations and not through the unilateral actions of either party.

The Council, in the resolution, expressed renewed concern over delays and stalled efforts to fully operationalize a Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism in the area, which its peacekeepers would support.

Ownership of Abyei, the disputed oil-producing region, remained contentious even after the world's youngest nation split from Sudan in 2011.

On 27 June, 2011, the Security Council, by its resolution 1990, responded to the urgent situation in Abyei by establishing the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

The Security Council was deeply concerned by the violence, escalating tensions and population displacement.

The peacekeepers are tasked with monitoring the flashpoint border between Sudan and South Sudan and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, and are authorized to use force in protecting civilians and humanitarian workers in Abyei.

UNISFA's establishment came after Sudan's government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) reached an agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to demilitarize Abyei and let Ethiopian troops monitor the area.

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November 15, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan's National Youth Union (SSNYU) on Tuesday issued a statement calling on all citizens in Juba to come out and demonstrate peacefully in support of Donald Trump's election victory.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives the thumbs up (AFP Photo)

The function, according to a public invitation notice, explains that the essence of the demonstration would to a send congratulatory message and affirmation of support to Donald Trump on his successful election as the 45th president of the United States.

The apparently government-backed demonstration will be held on Thursday and demonstrators are expected to start marching from Dr. John Garang Mausoleum to the U.S. Embassy in Juba where they will hand over a congratulatory message to the U.S. Ambassador for onward delivery to Trump.

This comes after President Salva Kiir appeared on the state owned South Sudan broadcasting corporation which he used a means of sending out his congratulatory to Trump on his victory.

The head of state offered to work closely with him to find a solution to the ongoing war in South Sudan.

He expressed hope that the new U.S. administration will be a new page and respectful bilateral diplomatic ties and cooperation to the mutual of the two countries and their citizens.

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by Paul Brandus

November 15, 2016 (WASHINGTON) - Had Hillary Clinton won, it would have been easier to answer, but since Mr. Trump's victory over her came as a surprise, there are no clear answers. Trump has never mentioned Sudan. His advisors—who are scrambling for roles and power in the new White House—have never mentioned Sudan.

The Trump administration will likely support democratic development in Sudan—as the Obama administration has and the Bush administration before that—did. But financial aid could be challenged by both the new administration and Republicans, who will continue to dominate both chambers (the House and Senate) in Congress.

Between 2002 and 2015 the United States provided $7.1 billion for humanitarian, transition and reconstruction assistance, and peacekeeping support in Sudan. But no U.S. assistance has been provided directly to the government of Sudan. This policy seems unlikely to change, for now, under a Trump administration.

Trump's foreign policy advisors—who are still being named—will work with outgoing Obama advisors in both the White House and State Department. They will get an update on current American policy, which outlines three key objectives: 1) an end to the conflict with South Sudan and what the U.S. calls “gross human rights abuses, and genocide in Darfur;” 2) Full and ongoing implementation of the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and 3) Ensuring that Sudan does not provide a safe haven for international terrorists.

The U.S. is also concerned about what the State Department calls “the Sudanese government's ongoing detention of at least 15 Darfuri individuals, including one Sudanese national employee of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).” The detentions followed a visit by Donald Booth (the Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan) to Sudan's North and Central Darfur states as well as internally displaced persons (IDP) camps at Sortoni and Nertiti in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur from July 26-28, 2016. Many others who were not detained were nonetheless questioned by security officials about the nature of their contact with the Special Envoy.

Here is what the State Department says:

“The United States immediately expressed its concern about the reported detentions to senior Sudanese officials, and we call on the Government of Sudan to immediately release all of those detained. These actions are particularly unfortunate as they undercut the Government of Sudan initially granting permission for the Special Envoy's fact-finding visit and allowing him to travel to areas and speak with individuals of his choosing. Such firsthand knowledge is important to shaping future U.S. engagement with the Government of Sudan and opposition groups and leaders regarding Darfur.”

These ongoing issues, for now, continue to cloud U.S.-Sudanese ties, and the possibility of any normalization if relations. It is too early to say just what—if any—changes could result from the surprising election of Dinald Trump as president of the United States.

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Ahead of tomorrow&#39s Brussels conference for the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations Security Council emphasized the &#8220significant role&#8221 the gathering will play in expressing the firm political support of international community and to secure essential resources to assist the country to implement key recovery and stabilization priorities over the next three to five years.

November 15, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/North (SPLM-N) and the opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) on Monday have called to escalate the campaign to release political detainees.

Following the government decision to raise fuel and electricity price on November 3rd, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) launched a large arrest campaign and detained 20 leading figures from the SCoP besides several members of the National Umma Party (NUP), Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), Arab Ba'ath Party, National Alliance Forces (NAF) as well as civil society activists and journalists.

Also, the NISS detained and summoned dozens of the Sudanese doctors participating in the strike that has been ongoing since last month.

On Monday, a delegation from the SPLM-N including its chairman Malik Agar, secretary general Yasser Arman and the movement's representative in South Africa Saber Abu Saadia have met in Pretoria with an SCoP delegate Ihab Al-Sayed al-laythi.

In a joint statement extended to Sudan Tribune, the SPLM-N said it has directed its base to work with the SCoP, the opposition umbrella Sudan Call and the rest of the opposition forces to escalate the campaign to pressure the NISS to release political detainees.

The SPLM-N renewed full solidarity with the detainees from the SCoP, NUP, NAF, SCP and ABP as wells civil society activists, journalists, doctors and all detainees.

The rebel movement said it would raise the issue of the detainees during its meetings with the leadership of the ruling coalition in South Africa and civil society.

It further with the message it received from the acting chairman of the SCoP Abdel-Monem Omer in which he called for the need to reconsider the political process and dialogue talks with the regime and to continue pressure to overthrow the regime.

The SPLM-N also called for the importance to unify the opposition work, demanding its allies in the Sudan Call to take a collective stand to suspend political contacts with the regime particularly after the arrest of some members of the alliance's Leadership Council.

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November 15, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir said any peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) would not include the integration of the rebel combatants in the Sudanese regular forces.

Bashir, who was addressing the forces of the Sudanese Military Intelligence, on Sunday, vowed to restore security to the South Kordofan and Blue Nile state next summer "either through peace or war ", stressing "We want to secure the Sudan, protect all our borders and to clear it from any outlaw."

In a leaked audio recording of his speech in the closed-door meeting, the President stressed that the SPLM-N has missed the opportunity.

"In the past, we used to negotiate a (peace) agreement including security arrangements and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process accordingly they are absorbed in the army, the police and security service, but as of today no single outlaw will be absorbed,” he said.

The Sudanese president pointed out that the SPLM-N forces in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states are part of South Sudan's SPLA army.

"They were supposed to give them (SLPA-N fighters) their rights and the latter had to hand over their weapons before to return to Sudan. But they didn't do that in order to negotiate with us," he said, referring to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005.
Al-Bashir however said every SPLA-N fighter who renders his weapon or vehicle will receive a compensation and be appointed in a job through the DDR Commission.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan on July 9th 2011 following a referendum on whether the semi-autonomous region should remain a part of the country or become independent. 99% of the southern voters chose independence.

The former SPLA (southern guerrilla army) 9th and 10th divisions in South Kordofan and Blue Nile formed the SPLM-N in the run-up to South Sudan's secession and have been fighting the Sudanese army in the two areas since 2011.

Al-Bashir added the SPLM-N should have changed its name to the “southern sector” because they are actually part of South Sudan's army, saying the rebel movement is now present in the south of the new Sudan, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

Commenting on Sudan's relations with South Sudan, al-Bashir said they are ready for peace or war with the newborn nation.

“If they want peace, they are welcome as brothers and if they don't want peace we are ready [for war] and he who refuse reconciliation will come to regret it,” he said.

He pointed that several unnamed powers had worked to separate the south in order to deprive the north of the oil and establish a powerful state to destroy Sudan, saying however their plot had failed and now they are appealing to Khartoum to achieve peace in South Sudan.

DARFUR REBELS TO BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY

Meanwhile, al-Bashir vowed to deal with Darfur rebels differently and directed his Defence Minister Awad Ibn Ouf to look into ways to integrate their fighters in the Sudanese regular forces if they choose to join the peace process.

He asked Darfur groups to resort to peace as soon as possible, warning that they would force them to chose peace if they refused to lay down their arms.

It is noteworthy that the Sudanese army on 12 April declared Darfur a region free of rebellion following the capture of Srounq area, the last Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdel-Wahid al-Nur stronghold in Jebel Marra.

Earlier in August, the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) suspended peace talks on Darfur region, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states after the parties failed to agree on security arrangements and humanitarian access.

Several international, regional and local parties seek to resume talks as soon as possible in order to agree on the cessation of hostilities paving the road for a comprehensive settlement to end the war.

The Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since 2011 and a group of armed movements in Darfur since 2003.

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November 15, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government under President Salva Kiir has resumed a drive banning media organisations and journalists from interviewing and disseminating any material associated with the former First Vice President and the leader of armed opposition in the country (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar.

A high ranking security officer told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that “no media entity and journalist will be excused from the ban” until a review of the media policy is completed.

“There are orders and directives we have received from the above that no media is allowed to talk to Riek Machar and come and broadcast or print it out here inside South Sudan. If you defy these directives, then the violators will not escape the longest arms of the law. They will have to face the full force of the law," a security officer told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday .

“So be very careful you members of the media, especially those of you in the electronic media who do not comply with the policies of the government because you think you can not be reached. It is a false perception. The government has the longest arms to reach you”.

The officer whose assignment does not allow him to speak to the media in an official capacity said Eye Radio station was shut down for "promoting rebellion".

Citing the closure of Eye Radio, he claimed, some media do not comply with the directives and despite repeated warnings to observe basic ethics of journalisms during interactive public phone programs.

The management of the United States funded radio also admitted receiving information notifying them the cause of the closure of the radio is linked to the airing of a news clip from a press conference held by Riek Machar a month ago.

The operative says forced to take unilateral decision after the station failed to comply with the directives and warnings to cease interviewing rebel officials and stop doing talkback segments in their programs.

Machar, according to the clip said, "We did not see that there is an initiative from the region or the United Nations or the African Union to rescue the agreement. From our side the agreement has collapsed, or part of the government of national unity has collapsed since July events. We do not want violence.”

He was talking about his replacement and the muted regional response.

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In Kenya Chinese companies are investing heavily in some of the country's poorest communities, yet as Chinese investment increases, so too do tensions between foreign contractors and local workers.

Students in Havana participate in an October protest, part of a campaign to fight the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Ivet González
HAVANA, Nov 15 2016 (IPS)

Cuba’s economic difficulties will be aggravated by the uncertainty regarding how U.S. president-elect Donald Trump will deal with the thaw inherited from President Barack Obama.

Experts consulted by IPS preferred not to speculate. But they did recommend that the Cuban authorities adopt all measures within their reach to cushion the blow and reinforce what has been achieved on the economic front with the outgoing U.S. administration.

“In any case, Cuba will have to continue moving forward with its economic reforms and try to resolve whatever has clearly not functioned for decades and is within our reach to fix,” said Cuban economist Pável Vidal, a professor at the Javeriana University in Cali, Colombia.“As a businessman, he could be inclined towards pragmatic policies that favour business interests. He doesn’t have a personal history against Cuba, and as a Republican he doesn’t have a complex about appearing weak. Since he doesn’t have prior experience in public office, a large part of his decisions will be reached with the advisers who surround him.” – Ricardo Torres

Vidal is studying the economic reforms implemented since 2008 by the government of Raúl Castro, which has been facing major difficulties this year due to liquidity problems and oil shortages caused by the political and economic crisis in Venezuela, this country’s main trading partner and energy supplier.

In the first six months of this year, GDP grew just one percent, half of what was expected. And forecasts for the rest of 2016 are bleak, projecting a drop of one percent.

Further muddying the picture are the doubts with respect to the recently restored relations with the United States, now that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was defeated by her Republican rival in the Nov. 8 elections.

“With regard to Cuba, I don’t think (Trump) will roll back the important steps taken by the Obama administration to normalise relations between the two countries,” John Gronbeck-Tedesco, assistant professor of American Studies at Ramapo College in New Jersey, told IPS by email.

“But with a Republican-controlled Congress, it’s harder to know when the United States will fully commit to lifting the embargo and truly open up trade between the two countries,” said the academic, the author of the book “Cuba, the United States, and Cultures of the Transnational Left, 1930-1975”.

The U.S. embargo against Cuba, in place since 1962, consists of a complex web of laws that can only be fully repealed by Congress.

Cuba sees the embargo as the biggest obstacle it faces to development and a normalisation of ties with its giant neighbour to the north.

Since the start of the move towards reestablishing bilateral ties, in December 2014, Obama has taken measures to undermine the embargo and attempted to protect his efforts by means of Presidential Policy Directive 43 on the normalisation of relations between the United States and Cuba, issued on Oct. 14.

He even took an enormous symbolic step on Oct. 26, when for the first time in 25 years the United States abstained in the United Nations vote on the resolution that Cuba has presented annually since 1992, condemning the U.S. embargo, which it blames for 125.873 billion dollars in losses.

Tourists enjoy the beach at the western Cuban resort town of Varadero. The number of U.S. tourists arriving jumped 80 percent in the first half of 2016, with respect to the same period in 2015. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Obama said his aim was to make the opening to Cuba “irreversible”. But just a week before the election, Trump said “We will cancel Obama’s one-sided Cuban deal, made by executive order, if we do not get the deal that we want and the deal that people living in Cuba and here deserve, including protecting religious and political freedom.”

But the business community and Cuban-Americans are largely in favour of the thaw, as analysts in both countries have been pointing out.

In Gronbeck-Tedesco’s view, “The United States will continue treating Cuba and Venezuela as separate political issues. And since Venezuela is still suffering from economic and political uncertainty, Trump’s plans would not appear to include an improvement in relations with Venezuela or help in rebuilding that country.”

In a reaction that observers like Vidal describe as “tardy”, Havana appears to be pushing for more foreign investment, especially in the energy industry, which is heavily dependent on the shrinking deliveries of Venezuelan crude.

“The tendency is for foreign investment in energy to pick up speed,” Juan Manuel Presa, an official at Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, told IPS. “There are a large number of projects in different stages of progress to use renewable sources, mainly wind and solar power.”

The engineer said the industry “is seeking a diversity of partners in a diversity of formulas: external financing of Cuban projects, companies that are made up 100 percent of foreign capital, and the new legal status of mixed – Cuban and foreign – companies.”

Cuba is still far from its goal of drawing 2. 5 billion dollars a year in foreign investment – the amount needed to put the economy on a steady footing. The 83 projects approved since a new law on foreign investment went into effect in 2014 have attracted just 1.3 billion dollars so far.

But to some extent, the thaw is easing the tense economic situation in this country.

Between 2.0 and 2.5 billion dollars in remittances from abroad flow into Cuba annually, mainly coming from the Cuban-American community, according to estimates by Cuban economist Juan Triana.

Only exports of medical services bring in more hard currency revenues, he said.

Another major source of hard currency is tourism. Cuba’s colonial cities and white sand beaches are experiencing an unprecedented tourism boom, with the number of visitors from the U.S. growing every month, despite the fact that they can only travel here under one of 12 approved categories, such as family visits, academic programs, professional research, journalistic or religious activities.

In the first half of this year, Cuba received 2,147,912 visitors from abroad, including 136,913 from the U.S. This latter number was 80 percent higher than the total for the first half of 2015, according to the national statistics office, ONEI.

In that period, tourism brought in more than 1.2 billion dollars, only counting public installations, not the growing private sector, which rents out rooms and runs taxis and restaurants.

Cuban economist Ricardo Torres showed IPS a novel analysis on the U.S. president-elect, who was widely criticised during the campaign for his racist, xenophobic and misogynistic remarks.

“There are three aspects (of Trump) that could benefit relations with Cuba,” the academic researcher said.

“As a businessman, he could be inclined towards pragmatic policies that favour business interests,” he said. “He doesn’t have a personal history against Cuba, and as a Republican he doesn’t have a complex about appearing weak. Since he doesn’t have prior experience in public office, a large part of his decisions will be reached with the advisers who surround him.”

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By Eric Reeves

I have been asked regularly over the past week what a Trump victory means for Darfur, and Sudan more broadly. I must confess the gravest concern and a fear that the U.S. intelligence community will have no difficulty in rolling a Trump administration to do its bidding in forging a more “productive” relationship on counter-terrorism issues with the génocidaires who make up the Khartoum regime.

There have been no significant statements about Sudan policy during the beginning of the transition period, as there were none during the entire course of the primary season or in the general election contest with Hillary Clinton, who herself said nothing about Sudan. The one exception comes in the form of a recent statement by Walid Phares, who was hired by Trump primarily as an adviser terrorism and counter-terrorism. Phares has declared that there should be no lifting of economic sanctions against Sudan, a comment that was picked up only by Sudanese on-line news sites, no American or European news organization. Whether Phares will have any meaningful role in a Trump administration is quite unclear; he is a man without a significant political profile, and with questionable credentials. Among other things, he works as a commentator for the hideously ideological Fox News.

This election-year silence on Sudan is in stark contrast with the presidential election won by Barack Obama in 2008, when candidate Obama courted the Darfur advocacy constituency by declaring that genocide in the western region of Sudan was a “stain on our souls,” and that as president he would not “turn a blind eye to human slaughter” by the Khartoum regime that was perpetrating “genocide” in Darfur (“genocide” is a word Obama did not hesitate to use as a candidate and at least early in his presidency.

These words proved thoroughly hollow almost immediately following Obama's inauguration in January 2009, hollowness symbolized by his appointment as Special Envoy for Sudan the appallingly unqualified, ignorant, and inexperienced Air Force Major-General (ret.) Scott Gration. Gration during his two years in the post was almost unfathomably destructive on every front of U.S. Sudan policy. For Darfur, this was especially bad news and by the end of his first term in office, Obama presided over a State Department that had “de-coupled” Darfur—site of what had been described as “genocide”—from the key bilateral issue between Khartoum and Washington: counter-terrorism intelligence from a genocidal regime in return for a U.S. of lifting of economic sanctions first imposed in 1997 because of Sudan's ties to international terrorism. Notably—and with good reason—Sudan remains one of only two countries in the world on the State Department's list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” something Khartoum very much wants to change.

The news today (November 15, 2016) is especially bad as the New York Times reports that the rabid Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, is the leading candidate to be Secretary of State in Trump's administration. Beyond his conspicuously vicious and vindictive nature as a politician, Giuliani will be Trump's hawk on counter-terrorism, and that means he'll be eager to assist the U.S. intelligence community in its effort to push U.S. Sudan policy further in the direction of accommodating Khartoum by whatever means necessary to generate better counter-terrorism intelligence, even if this is at the expense of strengthening a ruthlessly survivalist regime that is presently waging obscenely destructive war against the civilians populations of Sudan: in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile.

Certain to be lost on Giuliani is the irony of his declaring at this summer's Republican convention that President Obama had failed to protect Americans from “Islamic extremist terrorism.” For the regime in Khartoum came to power by military coup in June 1989 as the “National Islamic Front,” a name expediently discarded a decade later, though certainly not because of any change in ideological commitments. From the beginning, the men who hosted Osama bin Laden from 1992 – 1996—formative years for al-Qaeda—have known when and how to seem pragmatic. But they continue to engage in terrorism in the name of Islam, hosting Hamas, supporting Libya Dawn (the Islamist terrorist faction in the fighting in Libya), and until recently helped Iran supply military weapons to the enemies of Israel.

Sudan Today

Ordinary Sudanese throughout the country have long borne the burden of self-enriching economic policies fashioned by this kleptocratic regime, policies that have led to the current ongoing collapse of the Sudanese economy. Inflation is skyrocketing, there is not nearly enough foreign exchange currency necessary to purchase desperately needed food and medicines, as well as refined petroleum products, including cooking fuel. The agricultural sector is in terminal decline, and to generate even more wealth for itself, the regime is selling off or leasing huge tracts of arable farmland and even urban real estate. There is an accelerating process of national “asset stripping” as the regime prepares the way for the necessary exit of its senior leaders and all those who have enabled it to remain in power.

To be sure, European countries—in an effort to stanch the flow of African emigrants to Europe—are engaged in a cruel and callous policy of rapprochement with Khartoum, one that may buy the regime some breathing room. But the collapse of the economy, and hence the regime, is inevitable, even if the tipping point is still unclear. Africa Confidential recently reported on the ascendancy of “securocrats” within the regime, a clear sign that survivalist strategies are still defining domestic policies.

What will the Trump administration make of this all this, if they bother to become familiar with the details of contemporary Sudan? Perhaps our best clue is the appointment, as “senior counselor,” of Stephen Bannon, the man who has run Breitbart News and presided over its stable of racists, anti-Semites, and ethnic nationalists. Bannon's appointment, unsurprisingly, has been hailed by various white supremacists, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Given his role in the campaign, and the indications that Bannon will be the true “Trump whisperer” in the new administration, Bannon's own hateful views—described by the venerable Southern Poverty Law Center—are hardly encouraging for the people of Darfur: poor, black, Muslim, and geo-strategically inconsequential. Their ongoing agony would seem to be the last thing that Bannon will concern himself with; and the Sudan file, whatever that may be, will fall to Giuliani (if he is Secretary of State) and a U.S. intelligence community that cares nothing about suffering in Sudan but rather lusts for whatever counter-terrorism intelligence Khartoum might provide. No matter that in extraordinary leaked minutes from an August 2014 meeting in Khartoum of senior security and intelligence officials, former Defense Minister Abdel Rahmin Mohammed Hussein—indicted by the International Criminal Court on multiple counts of “crimes against humanity” in Darfur—can be heard speaking contemptuously of what intel Khartoum actually delivers to Washington.

To answer the question with which if began, I can only say that on the basis of all I know, and all that has been reported of the new administration-in-the-making, the future for the people of Darfur and the marginalized regions of Sudan, to the extent that future is defined by U.S. policies under a President Trump, simply could not look bleaker.

Eric Reeves has written extensively on Sudan for almost two decades; he is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

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