Day: May 7, 2023

class=”slides LONDON, 6th May, 2023 (WAM) — Manchester City, on the Etihad Stadium, defeated Leeds United 2-1 in the 35th round of the English Premier League, extending its consecutive victories and solidifying its place at the top of the table. The same round witnessed Chelsea secure its first win in the last eight matches after overcoming Bournemouth 3-1. Tottenham also returned to winning ways after five winless matches by beating Crystal Palace 1-0. Other matches saw Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers winning 1-0 over Brentford and Aston Villa respectively. Khoder Nashar

Source: Emirates News Agency (WAM)

Representatives from Sudan’s warring armies have arrived in Saudi Arabia for their first face-to-face negotiations.

The “pre-negotiation talks” between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were due to start on Saturday in Jeddah. They are sponsored by the US and Saudi Arabia.

Several ceasefires have broken down since the fighting began weeks ago.

Both sides have said they will discuss a humanitarian truce but not an end to the conflict.

There has been no word so far about whether the meeting has taken place or who the representatives from both sides are.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan welcomed the representatives from both parties. He said he hoped the talks would “lead to the end of the conflict and the return of security and stability to the Republic of Sudan”.

Gen Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF, said on Twitter that the group appreciated all efforts to establish a ceasefire and provide the Sudanese people with aid. He also insisted the RSF was committed to “the transition to a civilian-led government”.

Gen Daglo, better known as Hemedti, is engaged in a bitter power struggle with Sudan’s army commander, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – the country’s de facto president.

Saturday’s talks come amid reports of continuing clashes in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Hundreds of people have been killed and nearly 450,000 civilians displaced since the fighting began. Of that total, the International Organization for Migration says, more than 115,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

A joint US-Saudi statement urged “both parties to take in consideration the interests of the Sudanese nation and its people and actively engage in the talks towards a ceasefire and end to the conflict”.

A spokesman for UN children’s agency, James Elder, said the conflict’s first 11 days alone had killed an estimated 190 children and wounded 1,700 – and those figures were just from health facilities in Khartoum and Darfur.

“The reality is likely to be much worse,” he said.

The intensity of the fighting has prevented much-needed aid deliveries getting through.

So far Gen Burhan and Hemedti, who led an Arab militia in the brutal Darfur conflict, have shown little readiness to reach a peace settlement.

Source: BBC

Fighting could be heard in south Khartoum on Sunday as envoys from Sudan’s warring parties were in Saudi Arabia for talks that international mediators hope will bring an end to a three-week-old conflict that has killed hundreds and triggered an exodus.

Source: France24.com

The Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Dr Workneh Gebeyehu, is closely following the humanitarian ceasefire talks between the representatives the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (SAF) that commenced in Jeddah and urges the two sides to seize the opportunity of the face-to-face talks to silence the guns.

The Executive Secretary calls upon the SAF and RSF to immediately and unconditionally agree to a humanitarian ceasefire to allow the civilian population and families access to protection, safe corridors for movement, and access to healthcare services and meet their food needs.

The Executive Secretary reminds the parties of the decision of the Assembly of the IGAD Heads of State and Government during their 40th Extraordinary Session of 16 April 2023 that called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and decided to send a high-level peace mission headed by H.E. President Salva Kiir Mayardit of the Republic of South Sudan and that includes H.E. President Ismael Omar Guelleh of the Republic of Djibouti, and H.E. President William Samoei Ruto of the Republic of Kenya.

Finally, the Executive Secretary applauds H.E. President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the lead mediator of the High-Level peace mission for his efforts in engaging with Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan of SAF and General Mohamed Dagalo of RSF to cease hostilities and nominate representatives to a dialogue. The Executive Secretary further commends the IGAD Assembly for coordinating with other regional and international efforts to work towards a stable and peaceful Sudan in the best interest of the Sudanese people and the region.

Source: EMM/ IGAD Secretariat Avenue Georges

Stella Gitano is viewed as an important voice in contemporary Sudan. Her short stories, novels and journalistic articles — written in Arabic — have traced the consequences of war and displacement for more than 20 years.

Denouncing injustice, she has exposed in no small measure the greed and power-mongering of military leaders. “It is my fate,” she says, “to have to relive all this now.”

Fighting between troops loyal to rival generals in Sudan erupted on April 15. Hundreds of lives have since been lost. Many countries, including Germany, have evacuated their own people from the danger zone.

“I still have my family there. I am still in touch with my friends,” says Stella Gitano, who currently lives in the small German town of Kamen as a scholarship holder of the PEN “Writers in Exile” program. She feels safe there.

Gitano’s first short story collection “Withered Flowers”, published in 2002, described the fate of people forced to flee the murderous conflicts in the south of Sudan — in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains — before ending up in refugee camps near Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

“Displacement is truly a very hard experience. You simply have to save yourself, flee somewhere safe,” says the 44-year-old. “But there is more to life — even if that’s just water, food and medicine.”

In 2011, South Sudan seceded from Sudan. Stella Gitano became a target for nationalist and tribalist circles because of her activism. She faced hate speech and threats on social media. After being physically attacked, she left her home country in 2021. Gitano has been living in Germany since July last year.

‘Not our war!’

“It’s not our war,” says Gitano.

Writer Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin agrees: “This is not the Sudanese people’s war. It’s a couple of generals fighting for wealth and power!”

Sakin is one of Sudan’s leading contemporary authors. By the time his book “The Messiah of Darfur” (2012) was published about the Dafur genocide and the dictatorship of former ruler Omar al-Bashir, Sakin was well on the way to achieving international recognition. He has been living in exile in Austria since 2012 and was awarded the “Stadtschreiber von Graz” literary prize for 2022/23.

Sakin does not believe the guns will fall silent any time soon, although he hopes he is wrong. What he fears most is outsiders — Russia, the United States, European or Arab states or neighboring countries — meddling in the conflict, complicating and prolonging it.

None of the Sudanese parties to the conflict are strong enough to wage war on their own, he said. “With a lack of outside support, the war would peter out in no time,” Sakin says.

“When I was writing my book, many people didn’t want to believe me. The war in Darfur and South Sudan seemed so far away.” Many people thought his descriptions were fiction, except the Sudanese government, which banished him. “Today, everyone knows I was right.”

Sakin believes in the power of words, art and hope: “That is the only thing the people have left now”

In Sakin’s work, he skillfully blends fact with fiction, presenting a broad panorama of the conflict region on the edge of the Sahara, yet always with the focus on the victims’ suffering.

Artists like Sakin, who are committed to democratic change, justice and an effective legal system, inevitably get caught between the fronts in Sudan.

Another artist pushing for social change in Sudan is artist Amna Elhassan, whose works were on display at Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle at the beginning of 2023.

“Characteristic of her work are the layers. Layer by layer, she applies her motifs to canvas and paper,” explained exhibition curator Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann. “Through this complexity, she exposes the complex reality in Sudan and the struggle for emancipation and liberation.” Elhassan has also included graffiti as a reference to the street protests.

While the latest fighting was initially concentrated around army headquarters, the presidential palace and the international airport in Khartoum, it now appears that museums are also being targeted by the militants.

A recent article in Art Newspaper, an international art publication, quotes a Khartoum-based artist as saying that the Sudanese National Museum, founded in 1971 and housing treasures of Nubian archaeology, has been shelled. The extent of the damage is still unclear.

“Museums are now without guard to protect them from looting and vandalism,” the article cited Sara Saeed, director of the Sudan Museum of Natural History, as saying. Setback on the road to democracy

The director of the Goethe-Institut in Sudan, Maximilian Roettger, recalls the mood of optimism after the revolution in 2019, when tens of thousands of people demonstrated in front of the military headquarters in Khartoum. Before the latest outbreak of violence, Sudan was transitioning from military rule to democratic governance. Because of the recent fighting, Roettger was airlifted out of Khartoum a few days ago on a Bundeswehr plane, together with about 200 other Germans.

Art and culture, he said in interview, were playing an important role in Sudan’s transition phase. Artists such as Amna Elhassan contributed texts, films and works of art. The Goethe-Institut accompanied this dialogue by networking the cultural scene and providing necessary spaces.

“Our work is and was right and good,” Roettger emphasizes. “But of course the recent developments are a major setback in the process of transformation.”

As for writer Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, he says that if he were the president of Sudan, the first thing he would do would be to stage a weapons amnesty. There are too many militias, he said. “No one’s life is safe.”

In his view, the economy also needs to be restructuring: “Sudan is actually a rich country. We have enough gold, oil, land and other resources. But our leaders exploit everything for their own benefit.”

Sakin believes in the power of words, art and hope: “That is the only thing the people have left now.”

Source: Deutsche Welle

The UN’s top aid official was in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for ceasefire talks between Sudan’s warring generals, as concern grows for the humanitarian situation at the start of a fourth week of gun battles and air strikes in the Sudanese capital. “It’s getting more and more urgent to bring humanitarian assistance to Sudan,” said FRANCE 24 correspondent Bastien Renouil, reporting from the ground in Jeddah.

Source: France24.com