SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Sudanese authorities arrest 4 figures of former ruling party

13/2/2021: Sudan Tribune - Sudanese authorities arrest 4 figures of former ruling party

 Sudan Tribune report that Sudanese authorities arrested four members of the dissolved National Congress Party (NCP). The arrests occured after reports from the security agencies that the NCP orchestrated a campaign to destabilise the transitional government to take advantage of the difficult economic situation and the rampant inflation in Sudan.

Mohamed al-Hasan al-Amin, a leading NCP member said the authorities arrested Amin Hassan Omer, journalists Yasir al-Attar and Khawild Abdel Azim, alongside pointing to the arrests of former Vice-President Hassabo Abdel-Rahman, and journalist Hussein Khojali, the publisher of Alwan newspaper and owner of Omdurman TV satellite channel.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP – Sudan seeks to end terror designation in USS Cole settlement

13/2/2020: AP – Sudan seeks to end terror designation in USS Cole settlement, by Noha Elhennawy

 AP reports that Sudan will has reached a settlement with families of the victims of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, a key step in having the U.S. remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

 Faisal Mohammed Salih, Sudan’s information minister and interim government spokesman, also said that the Sudanese government is still in negotiations to reach settlements with families of victims of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

 Salih also told the AP that the US has set the overhaul of Sudan’s security apparatus as another condition to remove Sudan from the terror list.

 “The Americans believe Sudan’s support for terror was carried out through its security apparatus,” Salih said. “So they want to be assured that there has been a radical change” in the way it operates, he added.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan will pay $30 million to families of USS Cole attack victims

13/2/2020: Multiple sources – Sudan will pay $30 million to families of USS Cole attack victims

 Sudan will pay a $30 million settlement to the families of 17 US Navy sailors killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in a bid to get itself removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism (SST).

 Sudan's government "explicitly denies" its involvement in the attack and says the pay-out is intended to "settle the historical allegations of terrorism left by [Omar al-Bashir’s] regime."

 Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said the agreement was made "to meet the conditions set by the US administration to remove Sudan from the [SST list] to normalise relations with the US and the rest of the world.”

 Former US State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin told AP that the SST designation is a “diplomatic nuclear bomb,” given that the “politics of getting off the list are always incredibly complicated and draw in issues that don’t directly have anything to do with terrorism.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Minister’s apology for Sudan bread shortage

13/2/2020: Radio Dabanga - Minister’s apology for Sudan bread shortage

 

Radio Dabanga reports that Sudan’s Minister of Industry and Trade Madani Abbas Madani, has apologised to the Sudanese people for the lack of a solution to the bread shortage, and affirmed the state’s commitment to continue subsidising bread until the end of the transitional period.

 Madani added that up to half of the subsidised four is ‘leaked’ illegally by smuggling or being sold to restaurants and sweet-makers.

 He explained that the ministry is in the process of launching an electronic monitoring system which will be in place within a month to control wheat, flour, and bread in the import, production and distribution phases.

 

He added that a special police department and a hotline are to be established to secure supplies and receive public complaints respectively. He also threatened to revoke the licenses of agents and bakeries that hoard bread and flour.