Day: October 17, 2021

A splinter faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), called the “National Accord Group”, organized a demonstration in Khartoum on Saturday to demand the dissolution of the government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

The rally coincided with the group’s signing of the founding “Charter of National Accord”, which is composed mostly of Darfur armed groups, signatories to the Juba Peace Agreement, and some other small political groups from northern and central Sudan.

After rumours of plans for a sit-in outside the Council of Minister’s headquarters, the demonstrators finally headed to the presidential palace, where they announced they would stage a sit-in until the dissolution of the Hamdok government.

The protesters chanted slogans such as “Oh Burhan, we want a statement” alluding to a decree announcing the dissolution of the government, also the slogan was “One People, One Army”.

In videos posted by activists, young demonstrators spoke about receiving money for their participation in the protests. Also, the activists accused the heads of the koranic schools of receiving money for sending students to participate in the demonstrations.

The Human Rights Commission in Khartoum issued a statement warning against the use of children in the demonstrations and stressed that such practice violates Sudanese laws and international treaties.

Observers consider the demonstration as an attempt to polarize the street and escalate the strife between the forces allied with the military and the forces supporting the civil state.

Osman Mirghani, editor-in-chief of Al-Tayyar newspaper, said that Saturday’s demonstration reminds the practices of the former regime, which draw people to participate in the protests with money and other things, to give the impression that it has great popular support.

Al-Burhan recently called for dissolving the current government and forming a broad-based cabinet.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim who is also the Leader of the Justice and Equality Movement called for the government to be dissolved.

Ibrahim said that there is no contradiction between their participation in the government and his call to dissolve it at the same time.

He described the ruling coalition as narrow, and require to involve more groups to form a broad base that supports it.

The ruling coalition includes the Sudanese civil society groups and political parties except, the groups that had been allied to the former regime. Also, are members of the ruling coalition the other signatory groups of the Juba Peace Agreement.

The Sudanese Communist Party withdrew from the FFC to protest the implementation of the IMF-World-Bank-supported economic reforms.

The armed groups participate in the transitional government according to the power-sharing deal provided in the Juba Peace Agreement.

The ruling FFC Coalition plan to organize a rally on October 21 to demand the implementation of reforms agreed in Constitutional Document, especially the unification of army, militia and armed groups.

Source: Sudan Tribune

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced his support to plan to end the ongoing crisis facing the transition in Sudan.

“We welcome Sudanese Prime Minister Hamdok’s leadership in laying out a roadmap of principles to sustain the democratic transition in Sudan,” said Blink in a tweet posted on Saturday.

He further urged all stakeholders to take immediate, concrete steps to meet the key “benchmarks of the Constitutional Declaration”.

Hamdok who is under pressure to dissolve his cabinet, on Friday, said the current crisis in Sudan is not between civilians and the military, but rather between the “democratic civil transition and the camp of overthrowing the revolution”.

He further proposed a 10-point plan calling to end frictions between the FFC groups and broadening the base of the transitional government with more components.

Also, he rejected to freeze the Empowerment Removal Committee, before stressing that his initiative to deal with the political crisis would immunize the transition.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A Sudanese minister said that the livestock export has incurred losses of about $83 million as a result of the continued closure of roads and seaports in eastern Sudan.

Supporters of the Hadandawa tribal chief have been shutting down vital facilities in eastern Sudan, including the main port on the Red Sea, as well as the road linking Port Sudan and the capital, Khartoum, for about a month.

The tribal leader demands the abolition of the eastern track in the Juba Peace Agreement, the dissolution of the civilian government, and the power handover to the military component.

The Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Hafez Abdel Nabi, told the Sudan Tribune on Saturday that the losses of the livestock export to the Gulf countries amounted to about $83 million within a month.

“Losses from the revenues of local taxes for livestock exports amounted to 120 million pounds since the closure until now,” he added.

“There are at least 150,000 heads of livestock ready for export, after the completion of the vaccination and control of animal infections,” he further stressed.

He noted that exporters are incurring daily losses and If the closure continues, it would increase.

The protest movement of the Beja tribal group is perceived as part of the ongoing pressure on the transitional government and to bring it down.

In an interview with Sudan TV broadcast on Sunday, the Al-Handawa tribal leader denied that they were holding the basic goods or preventing their transportation to the rest of the country.

Mohamed Turk urged the Sudanese government to monitor the commodities stockpiled in the warehouses, adding that merchants keep in it important quantities of flour and sugar enough for the country’s needs for two months.

Turk made a list of goods that flow naturally, such as flour, sugar, medicine, fish and exported livestock.

It is worth noting that the government has called on the protesters to negotiate a deal to end the crisis but the tribal group declined the offer.

Source: Sudan Tribune