Africa

South Africa's Busiswa Gqulu is using her songs and poetry to overcome gender barriers in the music industry.

April 13, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has called his Egyptian and Ethiopian counterparts for a closed-door meeting over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), after the failure of the Kinshasa discussions, a week ago.

In a meeting held from 3 to 6 April in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa, the three countries failed to reach a deal over a four-way mediation to broker a final settlement on the GERD filling and operation.

The Sudanese cabinet in a statement released on Tuesday said the invitation is in line with the Declaration of Principles of 23 March 2015, which provides to hold talks at the level of heads of states or prime ministers if their delegations fail to settle a dispute.

"Since the parties have failed to reach an agreement through direct talks or African Union brokered negotiations, Sudan calls for a closed meeting between the prime ministers of the three countries via video-conference," reads the statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

The statement further said this meeting should take place within 10 days.

The meeting aims to evaluate the stalled negotiations on the GERD, to discuss possible options to break the deadlock and renew the political commitment of the three countries to reach an agreement in a timely manner in accordance with the DoP signed between the three countries.

" It is regrettable that ten years of negotiations have elapsed without reaching an agreement," despite the significant progress made during the meetings mediated by the United States and the World Bank, further said Hamdok.

The three countries have agreed on more than 90% of the agenda of the talks. Among the remaining issues, there are the conflict resolution mechanism, drought and other environmental issues, and data sharing.

Recently, Addis Ababa proposed to exchange data on the filing of the GERD without signing a legally binding agreement.

Ethiopian officials refuse to sign a legally binding agreement fearing that it would allow the downstream countries to prevent the construction of three other dams they plan to build in the future.

So, the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed proposed to start a new process from the scratch, to include a water-sharing deal in the process, or to sign two separate agreements one on the filling and another on the operation of the giant dam.

Sudan and Egypt reject these proposals stressing that any proposal should be based on the 2015 DoP and build on what has been achieved.

They also asserted Ethiopia's right to future development, underscoring that they want guarantees that these projects would not harm the downstream countries.

It is expected that the Sudanese prime minister would reiterate his call for a genuine political will based on the interests of the three countries and their joint destiny.

Hamdok's invitation is seen as the last attempt to reach a legally binding agreement before resorting to the UN Security Council and to avoid further escalations in the region if the parties fail to strike a deal.

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April 13, 2021 (CAIRO) - South Sudan has approved the importation of poultry products from Egypt, a senior official disclosed on Tuesday.

Egyptian minister of Agriculture, Assayed al-Qasir and his South Sudan counterpart, Josephine Joseph in Juba on April 8, 2021(courtesy photo)

The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture, Al-Sayed el-Qasir said the move comes within the framework of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's policy to open new foreign markets for Egyptian products, as well as to deepen the cooperation between Egypt the East African nation.

El-Qasir reviewed achievements Egypt has so far made in the field of domestic wealth, which, he said, had resulted in the animal health organization's accreditation of 14 areas free of bird flu in Egypt, approval of 16 other new facilities and the arrival of Egypt to self-sufficiency in poultry and the start of exporting abroad.

He further revealed that his country signed a signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Sudan to establish an integrated Egyptian farm for agricultural, animal, poultry and fish production.

Egypt was one of the countries that recognised South Sudan's independence on July 9, 2011.

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April 10, 2021 (JUBA) - The management of Nile Petroleum Corporation (NILEPET) has urged striking national employees of Dar Petroleum Operating Company to end their strike and resume work.

A worker walks through an oil production facility in Paloch in South Sudan's Upper Nile state, on 5 May 2013 (Photo: Hannah Mcneish/AFP)

NILEPET, in a statement issued on Thursday, said “misinformation” related to the implementation of United Human Resource Policy Manual (UHRPM 2020) developed by South Sudan's Ministry of Petroleum in 2021 sparked off the strike, now in its second week.

“On the outset, NILEPET as the commercial arm of the government in the oil and gas industry has been supportive of the UHRPM 2020 because NILEPET cares about the welfare of the citizens of South Sudan,” partly reads April 8, 2021 statement.

The striking workers say they are still demanding payment of benefits which extends from as far as 2012, following an agreement between the Ministry of Petroleum and the Joint Operating Companies (JOCs).

NILEPET, however, said its administrative disagreement with the Petroleum Ministry will not prevent implementation of UHRPM 2020.

“We would like to reassure the wider public and the striking employees that NILEPET, MOP, JOCs and other government stakeholders are in pursuit of a mutual resolution,” it stressed.

DPOC, an oil and gas consortium led by China National Petroleum Corp and Malaysia's state-run oil and gas firm Petronas mainly operates in the oil fields of Block 3 and 7 in Upper Nile state.

South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, depends on oil exports to fund its budget.

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April 10, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan decided to deploy a joint force including former rebels in the Darfur region to maintain security and protect civilians.

The decision came in the wake of the recent deadly tribal violence in El Geneina, West Darfur state, which killed 137 people and injured 221 others.

The Security and Defence Council (SDC) held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the security situation in the country and recent developments in West and East Darfur.

Speaking after the meeting, the Minister of Defence Lt-Gen Yassin Ibrahim said that the Security and Defence Council decided to "form a joint force made up of regular forces and all parties signatory of the peace agreement, a flexible force capable of rapid intervention to maintain security in Darfur."

Ibrahim who is the SDC's official spokesman further said the meeting decided, to expedite the preparation of the joint force and to deploy it in the potential conflict areas in Darfur.

Also, the minister announced the reactivation of the weapons collection campaign and taking "the necessary measures to prevent the manifestations of armed presence in the cities".

He added that the decisions include enhancing border control to prevent the flow of weapons.

Reports from El-Geneina say that the Arab tribes brought weapons from Chad.

Sudanese army deployed 6000 troops in the Darfur region but the governor of West Darfur State complained that the Interior and defence ministries were not responsive to his demands.

The formation of the joint force is part of the peace agreement but there was a delay due to the lack of financial resources for the establishment of cantonment sites for the combatants of the armed groups.

Furthermore, he stressed the government's determination to "bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice adding they would be tried immediately after investigation.

On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the Sudanese government to investigate the tribal attacks in West Darfur and to hold accountable the perpetrators.

"Independent, impartial and thorough investigations into these acts of violence must be initiated without delay. Effective accountability processes must be established to pave the way for genuine reconciliation and lasting peace," reads the statement.

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April 10, 2021 (GADAREF) - The Sudanese army will hand over dozens of Ethiopian militiamen and soldiers arrested during sporadic clashes on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border.

Reliable military sources told the Sudan Tribune that the handover process was supposed to take place on Saturday in the border town of Galabat, but it postponed to Monday for more technical arrangements.

"The military and administrative arrangements in the 2nd Infantry Division Command have been completed to release 60 Ethiopian prisoners of the army and Amhara militias," said the military sources.

The military officials pointed out that those Ethiopian elements were arrested by Military Intelligence inside Sudanese territory in the Al-Fashaga area where they used to attack Sudanese farmers and herders over the past six months.

They further said that the handover of prisoners confirms Sudan's keenness to keep up ties of good neighbourliness and to enforce the joint protocols between the two countries.

It is expected that the handover process will take place in the presence of a security committee from the Amhara region bordering the Gadaref State in eastern Sudan.

The Sudanese military said the situation on the border is stable dismissed reports about fresh clashes between the armies of the two countries.

"The Sudanese army has been deployed along the border strip to secure all cotton and corn harvesting operations and the movement of herders," the military further said.

On 1 December 2020, the Sudanese army handed back 50 Ethiopian soldiers who crossed the border area of Al-Fashaqa in Gadaref state during the fighting with the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

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April 10, 2021 (JUBA) – South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has sacked the army Chief of General Staff, General Johnson Juma Okot barely a year after his appointment, replacing him with Gen. Santino Deng Wol.

President Salva Kiir addresses the nation from the State House on September 15, 2015, in Juba (Photo AFP/Charles Atiki Lomodong)

Wol was also promoted to a First Lieutenant General.

Okot, according to a presidential decree read on the state-owned television (SSTV), becomes South Sudan's ambassador to Belgium.

Kiir also removed the Minister for the Presidency, Nhial Deng Nhial, replacing him with Barnaba Marial Benjamin.

Marial, a former Foreign Affairs minister, headed the government's delegation in ongoing talks with opposition groups under the South Sudan Opposition Movement Alliance (SSOMA).

Gen. Chol Thon Balok was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs, replacing Gen. Malek Reuben Riak.

Riak was appointed South Sudan's ambassador to Eritrea.

The president also sacked the former Director General of the Intelligence Bureau, Gen. Thomas Duoth Guet and appointed him the country's ambassador to Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the South Sudanese leader promoted the Director of the National Security Service (NSS) Gen. Akol Khor Kuc to the rank of First Lieutenant General.

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April 10, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan has declined an Ethiopian offer to share data on the second filling of a giant dam before reaching a legally binding agreement. Egypt has adopted a similar position.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry on Saturday said it has formally requested Sudan and Egypt to "nominate dam operators to exchange data before the second filling of the GERD commences in the upcoming rainy seasons in Ethiopia".

"In the letters addressed to Minister of Water Affairs of Sudan and Egypt, the Minister of Water Affairs of Ethiopia invited the two countries to nominate focal persons/ dam operators to exchange data among the three countries with regards to the second-year filling which will take place in July and August 2021".

The Ethiopian offer triggered an immediate rejection in Khartoum by both the foreign affairs and the water ministries.

"Any sharing of information without a legally binding agreement comes as a gift from Ethiopia that can be held back at any moment," said the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mariam al-Mahdi in a statement on Saturday morning.

"It is important to reach a legally binding agreement on the information of the filling and operation together and not one without the other," al-Mahdi further stressed.

Ethiopian officials say nearly 80% of the dam has been built and plan to carry out a preliminary energy-generating trial this year before reaching its full capacity of 15,695 gigawatt-hours (GWh) annually, in the future.

In a separate statement, the Irrigation Ministry said that the Ethiopian irrigation minister in a letter on Thursday 8 April informed Sudan they will release about one billion cubic meters of water in less than 48 hours to test the lower gates of the dam.

"This is a short period for taking preventive technical measures, showing the importance of reaching a binding agreement before filling the dam," stressed the statement.

The ministry further added these measures mean that part of the filling process will take place during May and June, contrary to the agreed schedules that provide the start of filling in next July.

"This will put pressure on the Sudanese electricity generation system," added the emphasized.

It worth mentioning that the technical details of the filling process have been agreed upon by the parties during the 9-years talks.

The irrigation ministry stressed the need to strike a binding agreement according to which the parties can manage their needs in water and strategic projects adding that it remains possible to negotiate it in one week.

Ethiopia had proposed to negotiate two separate deals one on the filling and another on the operation of the dam. Also, they repeatedly said that the downstream countries want to control the Blue Nile water.

Last year, they proposed to negotiate a water-sharing deal but Cairo and Khartoum rejected the idea pointing it was not part of the 2015 Declaration of Principles. As a result, Addis Ababa proposed to restart talks from scratch.

Sudan during the past years sought to reassure Ethiopia and often backed its positions even when Egypt lodged a complaint to the UN Security Council, Khartoum backed the idea to maintain the file at the level of the African Union.

However, Sudanese authorities have been surprised by the unilateral filling of the first phase without any notification from Addis Ababa.

The irrigation minister said in December 2020, Addis Abba refused to respond to their question about the sudden change of the percentage of silt in the water saying any information sharing will be effective once an agreement is signed.

(ST)

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April 9, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Women groups in Sudan on Friday released a Women Manifesto calling for empowering women's political representation and to repeal gender discriminations including that in the personal statutes.

Sudanese women massively participated in the 4-month protests that toppled down the oppressive regime of Omer al-Bashir that excluded women from the public space and confiscated their rights in the name of Islam.

However, the Sudanese government still did not ratify an international treaty on women's rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and an African charter known as Maputo Protocol, despite several pledges made by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

To urge the government to meet is pledge to sign CEDAW and to amend or repeal discriminatory laws by the former Islamist regime, women groups from all trends staged a protest on Thursday outside the ministry of justice and the Attorney General Office in Khartoum calling for the gender equality and empowerment of women political participation.

The protesters handed over a petition calling to ensure gender in the parliament and to amend the election law to allow women to run for office on behalf of their communities, not just on the women's lists.

Further, the petition urged the abolition of all discriminatory laws and policies, including criminal law and labour law.

Also, it called for the enactment of legislation criminalizing discrimination based on gender, including the abolition of male guardianship authority, equality for women before courts, and the recognition of full testimony in courtrooms.

The march mobilized "thousands of women together to protest against militarization, pervasive injustice against women and girls, gendered killings, and the normalization of sexual violence as the result of severe discriminatory laws that are still in effect in Sudan despite the fall of the ex-regime of Al-Bashir and his militant Islamists," said SIHA Network in a statement released after the protest on Thursday.

The Horn of Africa women group further denounced attacks on the female protesters.

"One woman was taken to hospital, but there are no further reports yet of other major injuries. Other men came out of their cars to physically assault the protestors," said the group.

"One student has said that she was punched and that her attacker threatened to rape her. Several of the protestors have already gone to the local police station to make formal reports of these incidents, 8 of which have already been recorded,"

The driver has been arrested, but it is unclear whether the other attackers have been apprehended, SIHA stressed.

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April 9, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan has legitimate concerns about the unilateral filling of the Ethiopian giant dam, said a South Sudanese minister during a visit to Khartoum.

South Sudan's Irrigation Minister Manawa Gatkuoth met with his Sudanese counterpart on Thursday to discuss bilateral cooperation and ways to update a framework cooperation agreement between the two sides.

Gatkuoth "affirmed Sudan's legitimate concerns about the unilateral filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)," said the Sudan News Agency after the meeting.

"He called on the parties to the negotiations to reach a legally binding agreement on the GERD," further reported the official agency on Friday.

The visiting minister requested technical assistance from the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation to build water harvesting pits and small dams, in addition to providing technical support in rehabilitating and maintaining pumps for Renk schemes.

Technical teams from the two countries will exchanges visits in the coming weeks.

On 2 April, the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported that Minister Gatkuoth received the Ethiopian Ambassador to Juba Nebil Mahidi.

According to the official agency, the South Sudanese minister said Ethiopia reaffirmed Ethiopia's full right to utilize its natural resources for its development.

"According to the Minister, amicable negotiation will be the key to resolve the issues with the downstream countries on the GERD," further said ENA.

Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt again failed to strike a deal on a mechanism to finalize an agreement over the outstanding issues including the exchange of data related to the filling process with downstream countries, conflict resolution mechanisms and a legally binding agreement.

"The tripartite talk on the GERD within the framework of the African Union is the key to resolve the issue sustainably," said Ambassador Mahidi, expressing the rejection of his government of a four-way mediation led by the African Union including the United Nations, the US and the UK.

(ST)