SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - UNAMID head lauds new Sudan govt as mission ends

 24/12/2020: Radio Dabanga - UNAMID head lauds new Sudan govt as mission ends

 With the joint UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) ending on December 31, its Special Representative Jeremiah Mamabolo noted “major” challenges including rising numbers of displaced people whenever conflict erupts, factional fighting between rebel groups, intercommunal conflicts and that the Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdelwahid al-Nur continuing to fight.

Nonetheless, Mamobolo claims that Sudan is now “in the right hands” for peacekeeping, in contrast to al-Bashir’s government which “would not allow us to dispense relief because it saw certain parts of Sudan as enemy territory.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga – Sudan-Ethiopia border demarcation talks end without results

24/12/2020: Radio Dabanga – Sudan-Ethiopia border demarcation talks end without results

 Radio Dabanga report that border demarcation negotiations between Sudanese and Ethiopian government delegations in Khartoum concluded without any results.

Sources say the negotiations failed because the Ethiopian delegation refused to recognise the 1903 border demarcation, saying that the British-Ethiopian treaty on the border was signed in colonial times.

Radio Dabanga explain that since Sudan’s independence in 1956, the 1,600 kilometre border with Ethiopia has not had a clear demarcation, thereby making it easy for Ethiopian militants to occupy farmlands in eastern al-Gedaref.

Ethiopian farmers have been cultivating crops for decades under protection by Ethiopian gunmen, but farmers in al-Fashaga, backed by al-Gadarif’s governor, demanded in July 2020 that these lands be returned.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Peace talks: Rebels, Sudan govt agree to include displaced, refugees in Darfur track

24/12/2019: Radio Dabanga - Peace talks: Rebels, Sudan govt agree to include displaced, refugees in Darfur track

Radio Dabanga reports that the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) alliance of armed movements signed a protocol with the Sudanese government, which stipulates the participation of the displaced, refugees and civil society members in the Juba peace talks.

SRF leader El-Hadi Idris told Radio Dabanga a joint SRF-government field committee of 24 will be established, with two-thirds of it SRF representatives. It will supervise two consultative conferences in Darfur’s El-Fasher, to choose the 50 representatives who will participate in the Juba negotiations.

The civil society conference will be held on January 5, which will be supervised by the committee, the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the Supreme Peace Commission.

The displaced conference will occur on January 10, with women having 50% representation. Women will also have equal representation in Juba negotiations.

The committee will also supervise a refugee workshop in Chad with the participation of refugees in several countries.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP – Sudan inks peace deal with rebel faction, paves way for more

24/12/2019: AP – Sudan inks peace deal with rebel faction, paves way for more, by Samy Magdy

AP report that Sudan’s transitional authorities and a rebel faction reached a peace deal, part of government efforts to end Sudan’s civil wars.

The deal, which “could pave the way for peace agreements with more factions of the SRF, as well as other rebel groups,” was signed between the Sudanese government and a faction of the Sudan Revolutionary Front known as the “Center Track.”

AP note that the latest round of negotiations included Sudan’s largest single rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement-North led by Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu, who threaten to call for self-determination in areas in controls in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan unless its demands for a secular state, disbanding of al-Bashir’s militias and revamping of the Sudanese military are met.

Another major rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (led by Abdelwahid al-Nur), rejected the transitional government and has stayed out of the talks.