SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Eastern Sudanese Nazir: Clashes are not tribal

21/8/2020: Radio Dabanga - Eastern Sudanese Nazir: Clashes are not tribal

 Radio Dabanga reports that the Nazir of Hadendawa tribe, Sayed Tirik, says the recent clashes in various parts in eastern Sudan are not tribal.

 Tirik said “we know who is leading the war…[it is] a conspiracy led by some politicians who do not care about the stability of the East and do not care about the lives and property of innocent people”.

 Tirik re-iterated calls for Saleh Ammar to resign from civilian governor of Kassala to “save the government from embarrassment,” adding that Kassala has unique specifications for a governor as it is a border state challenged by insecurity, human trafficking, and smuggling.

 Tirik also called for  a comprehensive conference to be organised by eastern Sudanese locals.

 The spokesperson for the Beja High Council, Abdallah Obashar, criticised “the intransigence of the FFC regarding the new governor”.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP – As political climate changes, Sudan plans women’s league

21/8/19: AFP – As political climate changes, Sudan plans women’s league

 AFP report that Sudan’s first ever women's club football league will start in the first week of September.

 Mirvat Hussein, the top federation official in charge of women's football, told AFP, that a women’s national team is also in the works.

 Speaking during a training session with her club Tahadi, 22-year-old Rayan Ibrahim Rajab said a women's league would have been unlikely just a year ago.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Multiple sources – Reactions to Hamdok as Sudan PM

21/8/19: Multiple sources – Reactions to Hamdok as Sudan PM

International and Sudanese political actors welcomed Abdalla Hamdok’s appointment as Sudan’s new prime minister.

 The US, UK, Norway troika said Hamdok’s appointment “presents an opportunity to rebuild a stable economy and create a government that respects human rights and personal freedoms.”

 Amjed Farid, a Sudan Professionals Association spokesman, called Hamdok a “Sudanese scholar and a technocrat with a track record of achievement.”

 Farid told the Financial Times that Hamdok faces “difficult questions” and a “dark legacy of the Bashir regime,” but said Hamdok “has enough popularity and peoples’ support to implement the very difficult emergency plans needed to rescue Sudan in this transitional period.”

 Another SPA spokesman, Al-Rashed Saeed, told Reuters “with the start of the transition period, we have entered the most complex phase, the phase of building and reform.”

 Khartoum University student Sumaila Ibrahim told AFP that “has the skills we need the most at the moment."

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Hamdok vows to rebuild Sudan’s battered economy and secure peace

21/8/19: Multiple sources – Hamdok vows to rebuild Sudan’s battered economy and secure peace

 Sudan's new prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, a seasoned economist, vowed to make peace with Sudan’s rebel factions, and devise an urgent recovery programme addressing the shortages of basic commodities that have plagued Sudan.

 Having built a career in international continental and international organisations, most recently as deputy executive secretary of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa, Hamdok emphasised the need to improve productivity and rebuild the collapsed banking sector.

 Hamdok, who also worked for the African Development and Trade Bank, is credited with shaping policies that spurred Ethiopia's rapid economic growth under late prime minister Meles Zenawi.

 US Congressman Jim McGovern cast doubts on the possibility of securing peace in Sudan, expressing “grave concerns…about whether military and political officials associated with the former regime will prove trustworthy partners given their history of violence, repression, corruption and bad faith.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Abdalla Hamdok appointed new Sudan prime minister

21/8/19: Multiple sources – Abdalla Hamdok appointed new Sudan prime minister

 Sudan has appointed Abdalla Hamdok as the new prime minister, as Sudan embarks on a three-year transition to civilian rule.

 Hamdok was sworn in as transitional prime minister on arrival from Ethiopia, where he has worked as a respected senior economist for the UN since 2011 before stepping down last year.

 "The government's top priorities are to stop the war, build sustainable peace, address the severe economic crisis and build a balanced foreign policy," he told reporters, adding that “the revolution’s deep-rooted slogan, ‘freedom, peace and justice,’ will form the programme of the transitional period.”

 "With the right vision, with the right policies, we will be able to address this economic crisis," Hamdok said.

 Hamdok’s appointment marks the first time that Sudan has not been under (formal) full military rule since Omar Al Bashir came to power in a 1989 coup.

SUDAN POLITICAL ALERT: Civilian members of Sudan’s sovereign council

21/8/19: Civilian members of Sudan’s sovereign council

 The 6 civilian members of Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, as agreed on the Forces of Freedom and Change are:

 1. Mohammed Hassan Al-Taishi:

A Sudan Professionals Association candidate, who was put back on the list after his dismissal sparked a social media debate. He was born in Darfur, and was a member of the Umma Party, until he left for the UK in 2009. 

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2. Dr. Aisha Musa Al-Saeed:

A university professor born in El-Obeid, she has a Masters degree from the University of Manchester and a higher diploma from Leeds University. She is the widow of famous Sudanese poet Mohamed Abdelhay. She worked as an English professor and translator at Sudanese and Saudi universities. She was selected as a member of the Sudanese Women’s Union, and is known for her track-record in activism and civil society.

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 3. Mohammed Elfaki Soliman:

A journalist who is part of Unionist Alliance, and the youngest council member (aged 40). He has a political science degree from the University of Khartoum. A columnist for Sudanese newspaper Al-Qarar, he has also published two novels and a political book called “Building the Sudanese state”.

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4. Hassan Mohammed Sheikh Idris:

From Kassala, he is a law graduate from the University of Khartoum, with experience of working in state institutions, including:

  • Legal assistant at he Sudanese Attorney General's Office, and then a legal advisor to the Central Bank of Sudan from 1974-1978.

  • In 1981, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of Kassala City.

  • He was elected as a member of the Sudanese parliament for western Kassala constituency in the elections that followed the April 1985 revolution in 1986.

  • He was then chairman of the Decentralized Governance and Regional Affairs Committee, and served as Minister of Housing and Public Works.

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 5. Professor Siddig Tawer Kafi:

Professor Tawer is known for belonging to the Arab Socialist Baath Party. He is an esteemed physics academic, with a good reputation in Sudanese, Saudi, British and German universities. He has published several papers on the Sudanese mining industry.

He has also co-organised activities to secure peace in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, and consulted the Sudanese Standards Authority, as well as preparing investment maps for Sudanese conflict zones.

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 6. Rajaa Nicolas Issa:

The military and the FFC jointly agreed on her as the unaffiliated 11th council member. She is a Christian legal expert who became legal counsel at Sudan’s Ministry of Justice.  

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SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan’s top general Al Burhan sworn in as Sovereign Council chief

21/8/19: Multiple sources – Sudan’s top general Al Burhan sworn in as Sovereign Council chief

 Sudan’s top general was sworn in as the leader of the sovereign council -  a joint military-civilian body created to rule Sudan during a three-year transition period toward democratic elections.

 The U.N. Security Council welcomed the inauguration of Burhan and the Sovereign Council, saying “these are important steps to deliver peace and security for the people of Sudan” — and to set the country “on the path to a democratic future.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan swears in civilian-majority ruling sovereign council

21/8/19: Multiple sources – Sudan swears in civilian-majority ruling sovereign council

 Sudan took further steps in its transition towards civilian rule with the swearing in of a new sovereign council. The sovereign council will replace the transitional military council (TMC) as Sudan’s ruling body.

 The Forces of Freedom and Change picked five council members, the military picked another five, and the two sides jointly chose a civilian – Coptic Christian judge, Raja Nicholas Issa - as the 11th member of the council.

 Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, who already headed the TMC, was sworn in as the chairman of the new sovereign council. He will be Sudan's head of state for the first 21 months of the 39-month transition period, until a civilian takes over for the remainder.

 The military also picked TMC deputy, and leader Himedti, TMC spokesman Shamseddin Kabbashi, Yasser Atta and Ibrahim Gaber.