SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters – Darfur displaced fearful as UN peacekeepers hand over to local forces

13/1/2021: Reuters – Darfur displaced fearful as UN peacekeepers hand over to local forces, by Nafisa Eltahir and Khalid Abdelaziz

Reuters’ feature piece on the end of the UN-African Union peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) spoke to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kalma camp in South Darfur. 

While “Darfuris say UNAMID offered a weak but necessary deterrent against militias originally armed by former president Omar al-Bashir to fight rebels,” community leader Sheikh Mousa Bahar Adam said IDPs are being “left with criminals,” with Ahlam Hamid highlighting the risks of rape, assault and starvation, as men risk being killed if they leave Kalma resulting in women venturing out to work.

With Sudan deploying a 20,000 peacekeeping force to Darfur, Reuters note that Kalma residents “remain deeply distrustful” of government forces, particularly the Rapid Support Forces, “which incorporated members of the Janjaweed militias that terrorised Darfuris”.

Reuters further note that western diplomats expressed concern that UNAMID is withdrawing prematurely.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune – Sudan condemns killing of five women, child by Ethiopia forces

13/1/2021: Sudan Tribune – Sudan condemns killing of five women, child by Ethiopia forces

 Sudan Tribune report that the Sudanese government strongly condemned the killing of Sudanese civilians by Ethiopian militiamen on the border area of al-Gureisha in al-Gadarif

The Sudanese foreign ministry confirmed that five women and a child had been killed by the Ethiopian forces and two other women are missing.

"While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Sudan condemns in the strongest terms this brutal aggression and condemns the targeting of defenceless civilians, it calls on the international community and regional organizations to condemn these criminal acts and demand their immediate cessation," said the statement “in a clear allusion to the silence of the African Union.”

Military officials on the border area told the Sudan Tribune that they found the body of a sixth woman killed during the attack.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga – Another victim of Ethiopian attack found in eastern Sudan

13/1/2021: Radio Dabanga – Another victim of Ethiopian attack found in eastern Sudan

 Radio Dabanga report that the number of victims from the Ethiopian attack on the village of Leya, al-Gureisha locality in El Gedaref, rose to seven, after a woman’s body was found nearby.

A committee formed by those affected by the conflict in al-Fashaga said that the Ethiopian militia launched the attack while the victims were harvesting corn.

The Sudanese Women’s Union condemned the assassination of the six women. It called on the government to extend its authority in the border areas and protect its citizens, especially women. They also denounced violations against women, warning that the “tragedies in the west of the country are moving to the east”. They demanded that the government reach a radical solution for the turmoil and the blocking of ports in the east. 

Local sources also report that civilian Mousa Saleh has been kidnapped by Ethiopian militas who demand a ransom of SDG 3.5 million.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Al-Mahdi rejects linking peace in Sudan to secular state

13/1/2020: Sudan Tribune - Al-Mahdi rejects linking peace in Sudan to secular state

Sudan Tribune reports that the leader of the National Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi rejected the demands of the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu for a secular state in Sudan as a condition to end the armed conflict.

In a speech in Sennar, al-Mahdi told his supporters that every political entity has the right when elections are held to campaign for the separation of religion from the state, or to call for a religious state, “but someone cannot say that if you do not accept my political programme, I will not accept peace.”

Al-Mahdi added that “peace should be agreed upon by removing the causes that led to the war.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Two protestors shot in Sudan's El Gezira

13/1/2020: Radio Dabanga - Two protestors shot in Sudan's El Gezira

Radio Dabanga reports that two demonstrators who protested against a march of Islamists in Wad Madani were shot. The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in El Gezira hold the police responsible.

Members of the district resistance committees in Wad Madani carried out a counter rally, after pro National Congress Party demonstrators were mobilised from various schools in El Gezira, the Wad Madani resistance committees said.