SUDAN NEWS ALERT: al-Taghyeer - Hamdok freezes Foreign Affairs’ recent employments

16/8/2021: al-Taghyeer - Hamdok freezes Foreign Affairs’ recent employments

Al-Taghyeer report that Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok announced that a special committee was formed to look into the Foreign Affairs’ ministry’s latest round of appointments, following his review of extensive reports provided by both Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labour’s civil service selection committee which led to the freezing and cancelling of new appointments.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Maryam al-Mahdi, had also formed her own committee to investigate complaints about the ministry’s recently appointed personnel, which accused the ministry of rejecting people who had passed the application exams and hired people who had failed instead.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: al-Rakoba – What are the limits of the recommendations of Hamdok’s initiative?

16/8/2021: al-Rakoba – What are the limits of the recommendations of Hamdok’s initiative? by Salah Shu’aib

Salah Shu’aib calls for Prime Minister Hamdok to “save time and energy” by allowing the transitional partners’ council, the alternative to the proposed legislative council, to handle Hamdok’s democratic transition mechanism and Road Forward initiative.

With elections due in two years, Shu’aib suggests that Hamdok should prioritise improving his executive performance, particularly fixing economic, social, information, diplomatic and cultural shortcomings, which is “the meaning of the revolutionary authority he was given”, instead of “wasting time” with his “very generalised” initiative mechanism which culminates in a proliferation of committees that have unclear objectives, and do not allow him to synchronise his ministerial performance.

Shu’aib also notes that the membership of Hamdok’s Road Forward initiative is 95 percent male, before questioning whether it will solve key issues pertaining to Islamists, the former regime, the re-integration of the Sudanese Communist Party and the Professionals Association into the government, alongside economic and security concerns.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - PM Hamdok announces mechanism ‘to protect Sudan’s transition’

16/8/2021: Radio Dabanga - PM Hamdok announces mechanism ‘to protect Sudan’s transition’

Radio Dabanga report that Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok announced the formation of a mechanism “to create a broad consensus” for the implementation of his initiative to protect Sudan’s 39-month democratic transition, which official started on October 3 2020.

The initiative is meant as a road map forward because of the lack of success in creating a national project, Hamdok explained. His proposal has been subjected to “a detailed dialogue with Sudanese inside and outside the country”, he said. “It belongs to the Sudanese people and they have the right to add or delete parts”, adding that the proposal was also discussed with the international community, “and all the responses were positive”.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Hamdok, Sudanese Communists, agree to review trade union law

16/8/2021: Sudan Tribune - Hamdok, Sudanese Communists, agree to review trade union law

Sudan Tribune report on the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) position with regards to the transitional government, according to comments by SCP spokesman Fathi Fadl, who underlined that the Communist Party did not abandon the slogan of overthrowing the transitional government, as the government "failed to implement the demands of the revolutionaries."

The SCP is opposed to the economic reforms implemented by the government, and the approach adopted in the negotiations with the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, which led to the signing of an agreement on October 3, 2020.

The Communist Party also criticises the slow pace of the government efforts to achieve peace and justice in the country, rejects “foreign dictates”, in reference to the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund the government is implementing. 

The spokesman pointed out that the Communist Party "does not reject dialogue with any political forces except the banned National Congress Party and the military."

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Guardian - Omar al-Bashir’s trial will be a sham, but Sudan’s revolution is alive and well

16/8/19: Guardian - Omar al-Bashir’s trial will be a sham, but Sudan’s revolution is alive and well, by Nesrine Malik

 Nesrine Malik argues that the Sudanese uprising has “unleashed huge political energy,” although the charges that deposed president Al Bashir faces are a “[sketchy] gesture towards accountability,” noting that Al Bashir is accused of a single count of corruption despite “30 years of ethnically targeted massacres, extrajudicial torture and executions.”

 Given that the Al Bashir’s regime – replaced by the military council that “stood in the shadows behind him” –captured the state so completely, Malik argues that the prospect of “piecemeal erosion followed by rebuilding,” is likelier than revolution.  Thus, the power-sharing agreement is said to reflect the opening of “windows of political change”

 With the Sudanese uprising resisting the June 3 massacre and the internet blackout, Malik concludes that the military can either compromise, or “go down the Egyptian path” of “sleeping with one eye open all the time in a police state, cursed by insecurity.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Al-Jazeera says Sudan officials allow it back into Khartoum

16/8/19: AP - Al-Jazeera says Sudan officials allow it back into Khartoum

 AP reports that Al-Jazeera says Sudanese authorities have allowed the re-opening of its bureau in Khartoum after it was closed over two months ago.

 The Qatar-funded broadcaster said Friday that a travel ban imposed on its bureau chief in the Sudanese capital was lifted and that all equipment confiscated following the shutdown was given back.

 In May, Sudan’s authorities shut down the Al-Jazeera bureau only a few days ahead of the June 3 massacre.

 The move to close down Al-Jazeera was seen as part of a wider media and internet blackout imposed by the ruling military council.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Amnesty urges Sudan’s military to extradite ousted al-Bashir

16/8/19: AP - Amnesty urges Sudan’s military to extradite ousted al-Bashir

 AP report that Amnesty International is urging Sudan’s military rulers to hand over longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court to stand trial for war crimes and genocide linked to the Darfur conflict.

 In a statement, Amnesty said that Al Bashir “has evaded justice for far too long,” quoting Amnesty’s Joan Nyanyuki as saying that while al-Bashir’s trial in Khartoum “is a positive step ... he remains wanted for heinous crimes committed against the Sudanese people.”