SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune – Military council meets SPLM-N’s Arman, ending contention over his return to Sudan

31/5/19: Sudan Tribune – Military council meets SPLM-N’s Arman, ending contention over his return to Sudan

Sudan Tribune reports The TMC held a meeting with the deputy leader of Sudanese rebel group, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yassir Arman. The meeting ended controversial demands for Arman to leave Sudan.

 His return was welcomed by political forces and seen as a positive step towards ending the armed conflicts as it would encourage the other groups to follow his example, but the TMC seniority demanded that he leave.

 However, Arman, and the SPLM-N secretary general Ismail Jallab were received by TMC spokesperson Shams Al Din Kabbashi and TMC political committee chief Yassir Al Atta. An SPLM-N statement said that the meeting was “frank and open and dealt with the current political situation, issues of just peace and ending wars forever.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga – Young man killed by Sudanese government forces near Khartoum sit-in

31/5/19: Radio Dabanga – Young man killed by Sudanese government forces near Khartoum sit-in

 Radio Dabanga reports that a young man was killed and several others were wounded when government forces shot at protesters on Nile Street, near the sit-in outside the military HQ.

 The problems started after elements of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia beat protesters with whips, witnesses, including several journalists, told Radio Dabanga. Other protesters intervened to defend them, after which the militiamen began shooting at the people.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP – Protesters in Sudan fear long-term sit-in could be dispersed

31/5/19: AP – Protesters in Sudan fear long-term sit-in could be dispersed

Protesters in Sudan on Friday voiced concerns that the TMC might disperse the Khartoum sit-in, after a general described it as a “threat to the revolution.”

 Maj. Gen. Othman Hamed of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said the sit-in “has become a hub for all kind of criminal acts…an unsafe place...and is threat to the national security of the state,” adding that “the [RSF] in coordination with other security forces ... [will] carry out legal procedures to stop…this behavior.”

 Tarek Abdel Meguid, a communist DFC leader, said that such “statements reveal the intention of the military council, which is not a partner to our revolution, to disperse the sit-in and to monopolize power.” He also dismissed allegations of illicit activities.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - Sudan bans al-Jazeera as pro-democracy demonstrations continue

31/5/19: Multiple sources – Sudan bans al-Jazeera as pro-democracy demonstrations continue

• AP

• Reuters

 Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) has ordered Qatar-based Al Jazeera Television offices in Khartoum closed without giving any reasons, the office director said.

 The Qatar-funded satellite network has long drawn the ire of Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the four nations now locked in a nearly two-year boycott of Qatar over its alleged backing of Islamists.